PGLib Rules Out Quantum Power Flow Advantage at Every Readout Level

Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a fundamental limitation to applying quantum computers to power grid optimization, proving that inherent network topology obstructs any potential speedup for direct current power flow calculations. The work establishes that grids that split into two large regions, a common characteristic of large transmission networks, force a quadratic growth in the pseudo condition number of the DC susceptance matrix as network size increases. This means that as the grid expands, the computational challenge escalates predictably, negating the promise of quantum algorithms. Combined with query and tomography lower bounds,…