Quantum-Enabled Distributed Unit Commitment

The penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) within the microgrids (MGs) increases the complexity of Unit Commitment (UC) problem. In this paper, the idea of quantum computing (QC) is introduced in power system distributed optimization to solve the combinatorially complex UC problem. To take advantage of QC, the quantum-amenable model of UC problem is innovatively developed. Then, by using the hybrid nature of quantum-inspired alternate direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and by exploiting the superposition and entanglement of quantum bits (qubits), the classical ADMM coordinates the subproblems to obtain feasible solutions. Additionally, this paper uses a decomposition and coordination-supported framework for quantum optimization, which allows to solve problems larger that currently available quantum computers are capable of solving. The quantum distributed UC results are compared with those from its classical counterpart, which validate the efficacy of quantum computing.