Noise-Resilient Quantum Power Flow

Abstract: Quantum power flow (QPF) provides inspiring directions for tackling power flow's computational burdens leveraging quantum computing. However, existing QPF methods are mainly based on noise-sensitive quantum algorithms, whose practical utilization is significantly hindered by the limited capability of today's noisy-intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. This paper devises a NISQ-QPF algorithm, which enables power flow calculation on noisy quantum computers. The main contributions include: (1) a variational quantum circuit (VQC)-based AC power flow formulation, which enables QPF using short-depth quantum circuits; (2) noise-resilient QPF solvers based on the variational quantum linear solver (VQLS) and modified fast decoupled power flow; (3) a practical NISQ-QPF framework for implementable and reliable power flow analysis on noisy quantum machines. Promising case studies validate the effectiveness and accuracy of NISQ-QPF on IBM's real, noisy quantum devices.