Quantum computing as a service for power grids

Denver-based Resilient Entanglement has been awarded funding to advance quantum computing as a service for renewables and grid use cases.

Resilient Entanglement, claimed as the first global women-owned R&D firm in the quantum grid field, is developing a software as a service (SaaS) product to support the deployment of renewable energy generation and responsive demand strategies using quantum models and quantum mechanical phenomena.

The $250,000 award is from the Colorado Advanced Industries Accelerator programme – one of twenty-two awarded in the latest round – which is aimed to help local technology businesses develop and commercialise their advanced technologies.

Resilient Entanglement was formed in 2020 by former postdoctoral research fellow Dr Rozhin Eskandarpour, with the mission to accelerate the power industry’s adoption of quantum technology with the development of advanced grid solutions.

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“This is a critical step in progressing towards greenhouse gas emission reductions, ensuring US national energy security and resiliency, and educating the next generation of scientists and industry thought leaders,” Eskandarpour says on the start-up’s website.

In an IEEE paper lead authored by Eskandarpour at the time, she noted that despite extensive research activities in quantum computing applications in various sectors, its application to power systems had remained mostly unexamined.

The challenge for grid operators is that they are collecting and need to analyse more and more data to address the emerging complexities, which also requires moving beyond the classical computing solutions and systems.

In the case of power flow analysis for example, for large scale power grids this has been shown it can be carried out up to 30 times faster on a quantum computer than on a classical computer.

“The enabling component in building the grid of the future is a strong computational foundation that converts data into actionable information,” says Eskandarpour.

“Resilient Entanglement’s end product is a quantum computing-based platform that is easy to use by the industry and is essential in addressing many of the grid challenges that already exist or will emerge in the next few years and decades.”

The platform will particularly focus on grid economics, reliability, resilience, security and sustainability.