Quantum Computing for Power Electronics: Quantum Machine Learning Approaches for IoT-Enabled Grid Optimization
Seepuram Srinivas Kumar, Heena Kausar · 2025
The increasing complexity of modern power grids, driven by the integration of renewable energy sources, decentralized energy generation, and dynamic load variations, necessitates advanced computational approaches for efficient grid optimization. Conventional algorithms often struggle with the high-dimensionality and computational intensity of power system optimization problems, prompting the exploration of quantum computing as a transformative alternative. Quantum computing, particularly quantum machine learning (QML) and quantum optimization algorithms, has demonstrated significant potential in accelerating grid stability analysis, energy dispatch, and fault detection. This chapter provides a comprehensive investigation into quantum computing applications for power electronics, focusing on quantum-inspired machine learning models and hybrid quantum-classical frameworks for IoT-enabled smart grids. The potential advantages of quantum algorithms, including the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), and Grover’s search algorithm, are analyzed in the context of grid optimization, fault detection, and cybersecurity. Additionally, a comparative analysis of classical and quantum machine learning techniques highlights key performance differences and the challenges associated with practical quantum implementations. Despite the promising advancements, several challenges, including quantum hardware limitations, noise susceptibility, and scalability issues, must be addressed for real-world deployment. Future directions emphasize the need for noise-resilient quantum algorithms, efficient hybrid architectures, and quantum-inspired classical methods to bridge the gap between existing computational techniques and next-generation quantum solutions for power grid management.