Hybrid Quantum-Classical Unit Commitment

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for the unit commitment problem in power systems, combining classical and quantum optimization techniques to improve solution methods.

Contribution

It presents a novel hybrid quantum-classical approach that decomposes the UC problem and integrates QAOA with classical solvers using an iterative coordination scheme.

Findings

Simulation results validate the algorithm's effectiveness.

Demonstrates feasibility of quantum algorithms for power system optimization.

Provides a framework for future quantum-classical hybrid methods.

Abstract

This paper proposes a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm to solve a fundamental power system problem called unit commitment (UC). The UC problem is decomposed into a quadratic subproblem, a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) subproblem, and an unconstrained quadratic subproblem. A classical optimization solver solves the first and third subproblems, while the QUBO subproblem is solved by a quantum algorithm called quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). The three subproblems are then coordinated iteratively using a three-block alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm. Using Qiskit on the IBM Q system as the simulation environment, simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm to solve the UC problem.