DE102023109917A1 - Methods and quantum computers for energy distribution - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method for distributing electrical energy with the following features: vehicles are integrated into an energy supply network; and the distribution is optimized by means of a distributed quantum computer.
The invention further provides a corresponding quantum computer, a corresponding computer program and a corresponding storage medium.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for distributing electrical energy. The present invention also relates to a corresponding quantum computer, a corresponding computer program and a corresponding storage medium.

The possibility of exchanging information between electric vehicles and charging infrastructure (vehicle-to-grid, V2G) is familiar to experts. So-called bidirectional charging for the use of electric vehicles as temporary energy storage in modern energy networks is also well known; the requirements for a corresponding application protocol can be found in the international standard ISO 15118-20:2022, Part 20. The term "V2G" is used below to refer to the integration of vehicles into energy networks as a mobile power source.

The connection of several quantum computers to form a network is referred to as a quantum network or quantum internet, based on the terminology of classical network theory, and its nodes are referred to as quantum nodes. In the future, a computer network of such nodes will be used in particular for distributed quantum computing.

A powerful state-of-the-art quantum node has a capacity of 1,121 so-called physical qubits, i.e. two-state quantum systems.

Conventional distributed and especially massively parallel systems typically use a standardized message passing interface (MPI).

EP4108508A1 discloses a V2G method in which computing power is provided by a computer network of quantum nodes.

CN114549092B describes a different V2G approach and non-specifically mentions the conceivable use of quantum computers.

WO2018098400A1 proposes an energy management system that could also be used in the context of V2G.

WO2021016095A1 discusses in another context the provision of computing power by a distributed quantum computer.

The invention provides a method for distributing electrical energy, a quantum computer adapted to this method, a corresponding computer program and a storage medium according to the independent claims.

The proposed approach is based on the realization that the integration of vehicles into energy systems requires a lively exchange of data and extensive coordination, including optimization. In order to handle such complex optimization tasks and to find a global optimum for this real-time application, high computing power is required. State-of-the-art classical computers do not have this power. Practical applications of quantum computers, on the other hand, require millions of physical qubits, and it will be a challenge for individual quantum nodes to achieve such capacity.

Therefore, a core idea of the invention is to exploit the resource requirements of quantum algorithms in a distributed configuration in which several quantum nodes are connected to each other via a quantum coherent computer network in order to contribute to the faster solution of these complex optimization problems and in this way to further improve the global optimization of energy distribution for V2G applications.

The advantage of such a distributed quantum computer lies in its ability to coordinate and optimize V2G integration more quickly than a classic computer network or locally operating quantum computer. It therefore offers better solutions for optimizing energy distribution in power grids than classic computers.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are specified in the dependent patent claims.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawing and is described in more detail below.

The figure shows a quantum computer distributed over a quantum network.

The only figure illustrates an example of a quantum computer which is distributed across twelve quantum nodes (11). According to a three-dimensional grid topology, each of the quantum nodes (11) is connected to its neighbors by at least three coherent quantum channels (12). An extension of the MPI interface adapted for such a computer network (10) is described in HÄNER, Thomas, et al. Distributed quantum computing with QMPI. In: Proceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis. 2021. pp. 1-13 .

The quantum computer, which is distributed across the international computer network (10), finds a global optimum for the task of distributing electrical energy in a supply network in which numerous vehicles of different types and charging capacities are integrated. During peak load periods of the supply network, the vehicles are used as mobile energy sources, while they are recharged during off-peak times - for example at night.

QUOTES INCLUDED IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of documents listed by the applicant was generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA accepts no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• EP 4108508 A1 [0006]
• CN 114549092 B [0007]
• WO 2018098400 A1 [0008]
• WO 2021016095 A1 [0009]

Cited non-patent literature

• HÄNER, Thomas, et al. Distributed quantum computing with QMPI. In: Proceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis. 2021. pp. 1-13 [0017]

Claims (10)

Method for distributing electrical energy, characterized by the following features: - vehicles are integrated into an energy supply network and - the distribution is optimized by means of a distributed quantum computer. procedure according to claim 1 , characterized by the following feature: - the quantum computer is distributed over a computer network (10) with coherent quantum channels (12). procedure according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized by the following feature: - the vehicles are used as a mobile source of energy. procedure according to claim 3 , characterized by the following feature: - the application takes place during peak load periods of the supply network. procedure according to claim 4 , characterised by the following feature: - the vehicles are charged outside peak times. Method according to one of the Claims 1 until 5 , characterized by the following feature: - the distribution is optimized globally. Quantum computer, characterized by the following feature: - the quantum computer is designed to carry out a method according to one of the Claims 1 until 6 furnished. quantum computers according to claim 7 , characterized by the following feature: - the quantum computer has an MPI interface. Computer program which is designed to carry out all the steps of a method according to one of the Claims 1 until 6 to carry out. Machine-readable storage medium with a computer program stored thereon in accordance with claim 9 .

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