The QuGrids project – a joint endeavor by ten research groups from Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), RWTH Aachen University, Fraunhofer FIT and the University of Münster, coordinated by Prof. A. Benigni from FZJ – aims at exploring the use of quantum technologies for the planning and operation of future energy grids. Funded within the “Profilbildung 2022” program by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW), the goal of the project is to create an intradisciplinary network of researchers within NRW to guide and lead further research, teaching, and knowledge transfer activities, to establish a long-term leadership position for NRW within the areas of quantum technology and energy grids.

The project has three major work package areas, with COMSYS contributing to all of them:

• WP1: Demo cases for quantum-based energy grids – Development and requirements engineering regarding algorithms, methods, hardware and communication schemes for energy grid planning and operation that take both the chances and the risks of quantum computing and quantum communication into account. COMSYS contributes to two sub-WPs specifically; we give details below.
• WP2: Proposals development – To stimulate further research activities in line with the funding program's goals, this work package area identifies research and funding opportunities regarding quantum technologies for energy grids that go beyond the scope of the demo cases from WP1. COMSYS contributes to all sub-WPs.
• WP 3: Teaching and workforce development – With quantum technologies being a relatively new field also in university education, this work package aims to more deeply incorporate quantum computing and quantum communication into the curricula. This is achieved via both the inclusion of quantum-* topics in existing courses such as seminars and lectures, and via additional offers, such as a ring lecture series on “Quantum for Energy” for electrical and mechanical engineers and computer scientists, a PhD summer school, and possibly open access courses. COMSYS contributes to all sub-WPs.

COMSYS' main research efforts fall into the area of quantum communication in and for energy grids:

Energy grids are among the most critical of all infrastructures in modern societies. As we transition from systems with a few large, controllable entities to highly decentralized networks with millions of smaller, often unpredictable participants, real-time coordination becomes increasingly complex. Ensuring scalable and secure communication mechanisms for future energy grid control presents a significant challenge. The advent of quantum computing likewise gives rise to a number of novel challenges to established methods for the protection of such communication mechanisms against attacks such as the insertion of false signals or eavesdropping. At the same time, quantum technologies offer groundbreaking opportunities to enhance security and efficiency.

Our goal is to identify to which extent quantum technologies can be employed to address these challenges in grid-side communication. We investigate how methods such as Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) can secure the communication channels among the potentially many involved parties, and how quantum state correlations can be used to enable information transmission methods beyond conventional hop-to-next-hop schemes. To this end, we analyze the information flow within future grid control algorithms, quantify required bandwidths, latencies and processing steps, and investigate how paradigms such as edge- and on-path computing can help facilitating suitable control and security mechanisms to redefine communication frameworks for the energy grids of tomorrow.

More information will be available soon on the official project website.