Quantum computing for power grids at QCE26 still answered to a classical judge

This guide follows 14 talks on quantum computing for power grids from IEEE Quantum Week 2026 in Toronto, most of them given on one Thursday. Nearly every result came from classical simulation, and the real quantum runs stayed small. On the morning of Thursday 17 September, in Room 716A of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Hal Finkel of the US Department of Energy opened a web page that went live as Finkel spoke. It launched a competition worth up to $215 million for quantum computers that correct their own errors. The grid engineers who followed Finkel to the front of the room asked a smaller and older question about quantum computing for power grids. They wanted to know whether any quantum method helps keep the lights on, and who gets to decide when one does. Keeping the lights on is a running exercise in mathematics. A grid must match supply and demand every second. So its operators solve a stack of hard problems, starting a day ahead, when they choose which plants to switch on in a job called unit commitment. Every few minutes they share the load among running plants at least cost, which is economic dispatch. Optimal power…