Why quantum innovation will be a key enabler for decarbonising energy systems

By Daniel Goldsmith, Senior Quantum Computing Technologist at Digital Catapult  

Coal, oil, and natural gas provided most of the UK’s energy in 2024, fossil fuels that are major sources of greenhouse gases and contribute to irreversible climate change.  

The UK government is a signatory to the 1995 Paris Agreement on climate change which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century. Achieving that target is in doubt without significant and rapid action to decarbonise the UK’s energy system to achieve Net Zero.  

At Digital Catapult, we accelerate the practical application of deep tech innovation to help achieve decarbonisation with new, technology-led solutions. 

Our innovation programmes have demonstrated how quantum computing, quantum safe communications and quantum sensing have the potential to unlock environmental, efficiency and reliability gains right across the energy sector. 

Why decarbonise energy systems? 

As well as combating climate change, decarbonising the energy system will reduce UK sensitivity to external market shocks and help to reduce the heavy reliance on imports.

Many renewable energy sources are cheap to run and quick to deploy. Work by Lazard showed that “despite headwinds and macroeconomic challenges, renewables remain the most cost-competitive form of new-build generation on an unsubsidized basis”.

Renewable energy also creates jobs. The World Economic Forum found “dollar-for-dollar, clean energy and other green investments generally create more jobs in the near term than unsustainable investments”. 

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Despite the benefits, it will be difficult to transition to Net Zero. Policy makers describe the three conflicting policy objectives of sustainability, security, and affordability as a ‘trilemma’.

Although small renewable energy sources like solar panels and batteries allow consumers to become 'prosumers' by producing and storing electricity generated at home, the move away from a few large, centralised power plants to a more decentralised form of energy generation creates a much more complicated network.

As a result, it will become increasingly more challenging to design and run networks that are both resilient and efficient.

Quantum computing, along with quantum sensing and quantum safe communications, will be a useful tool to help manage and monitor the energy networks of the future and will unlock new opportunities for decarbonisation and commercial growth. 

How quantum can decarbonise  

Quantum computers leverage quantum effects such as superposition, entanglement, and interference to enable performance that is superior to classical computers on some applications.

We are currently in the era of Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum Devices (NISQ), which means that quantum innovation can aid in exploring quantum algorithms but is not yet powerful or reliable enough for large-scale tasks. Applications most suitable for early adoption on NISQ era devices include Optimisation and Quantum Machine Learning (QML).  

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Optimisation challenges that energy system operators might tackle with quantum include meter placement, facility location allocation, the Unit Commitment Problem and economic power dispatch.  Quantum Machine Learning will enable preventative maintenance through better anomaly detection, as well as forecasting of generation and load. Generative QML will be used to generate scenarios for contingency and reliability analysis. 

In quantum computers, information is stored in qubits, which are like bits in regular computers but can hold more complex information thanks to quantum properties like superposition. In 10 to 15 years, we expect powerful quantum computers to be built using advanced 'logical' qubits.

These logical qubits will be protected from errors by constantly detecting and correcting mistakes in the basic "physical" qubits before any damage is done.

These transformational devices will be able to run many different quantum algorithms, enabling a wide range of powerful applications including weather forecasting and improvements in material science.  

However, with the benefits of fault tolerant computing will come risks. Hostile actors can crack commonly used encryption schemes used in communications and electronic signature on fault-tolerant quantum computers and disrupt grid operations.

Energy system operators urgently need to develop plans to upgrade their encryption schemes using quantum-secure mechanisms such as post quantum cryptography (PQC), alternative quantum resistant classical schemes,  or Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which allows encryption keys to be securely exchanged for critical messages, with the security guaranteed by the laws of quantum mechanics. 

Quantum sensing can help with the constant monitoring of the grid required for this critical national infrastructure. Optical quantum sensors, for example, can detect if fibre optic cables used to control the grid have been compromised.

Quantum gravity sensors will detect underground structures, for example during maintenance operations, and since sustainable hydrogen may replace natural gas, quantum gas sensors are able to detect hydrogen leaks.  

Quantum innovation 

Digital Catapult supports large industrial players in the energy sector through innovation and technical consultancy, accelerator programmes and by convening capabilities with leading industry players and quantum experts. 

Our Quantum technology access programme, funded by Innovate UK and supported by partners ORCA Computing and Riverlane, provided end users across the sector with education on quantum computing, the opportunity to discuss real-life business use cases with quantum experts, and access to experiment on real quantum devices. 

This target intervention from Digital Catapult facilitated knowledge sharing and collaboration helping to drive deeper understanding of how the practical application of quantum technologies in the energy sector (and sectors including infrastructure, defence, and manufacturing) can solve real world problems faced by companies, large and small. 

During the first cohort, Frazer-Nash and DNV implemented the 'unit commitment problem' to determine which energy generators could be used to minimise the total cost of power generation, subject to the constraints of meeting forecasted energy demand, respecting generator ramp rates and the minimum up and down time.

During the second cohort, Simulex optimised the operation of hydrogen producing electrolysers, and Vodafone worked on the 'Steiner Tree problem' to optimise telecom network expansion, a problem also relevant for electricity distribution networks.   

The success of these applications is testament to providing our industrial partners with the means to access quantum innovation and the ORCA PT-series quantum computer which allowed these businesses to explore effective means of decarbonising energy systems.

The UK energy system urgently needs to decarbonise - this is a massive challenge and quantum computing, quantum safe communications, and quantum sensing can play a key role not only to increase the sustainability, but also the security and affordability of our future energy systems.  

To ensure the UK realises the benefits of quantum technology we need innovation and adoption programmes, like those delivered by Digital Catapult, to help build a healthy and vibrant UK quantum community. 

To find out more about Digital Catapult, click here.  

Originally published on Smart Energy International.