The supremacy and fast development of quantum techniques are stimulating the arrival of an ultra-secure and super-fast quantum internet, which accordingly will shape future electric grids. This paper develops a novel scheme for resilient electric grids by using a quantum direct communication (QDC) network. The novelty of this work includes: (a) a novel QDC-based electric grid architecture is devised to provide ultra-secure communication; (b) we investigate QDC protocols for grid communication and analyze the impacts of attacks and noises; and (c) we demonstrate how to establish a QDC-enabled electric grid testbed to evaluate the system's performance.
The supremacy and fast development of quantum techniques are stimulating the arrival of an ultra-secure and super-fast quantum internet, which accordingly will shape future electric grids. This paper develops a novel scheme for resilient electric grids by using a quantum direct communication (QDC) network. The novelty of this work includes: (a) a novel QDC-based electric grid architecture is devised to provide ultra-secure communication; (b) we investigate QDC protocols for grid communication and analyze the impacts of attacks and noises; and (c) we demonstrate how to establish a QDC-enabled electric grid testbed to evaluate the system's performance.
Existing microgrid communication relies on classical public key systems, which are vulnerable to attacks from quantum computers. This paper uses quantum key distribution (QKD) to solve these quantum-era microgrid challenges. Specifically, this paper makes the following novel contributions: 1) it devises a novel QKD simulator capable of simulating QKD protocols; 2) it offers a QKD-based microgrid communication architecture for microgrids; 3) it shows how to build a quantum-secure microgrid testbed in an RTDS environment; 4) it develops a key pool sharing (KPS) strategy to improve the cyberattack resilience of the QKD-based microgrid; and 5) it analyzes the impacts of critical QKD parameters with the testbed. Test results provide insightful resources for building a quantum-secure microgrid.
The development and evolution of the smart grid into complex, cyber-physical energy systems make it essential to secure?communication among the distributed components. The rise of quantum computing has made it even more pressing to develop protocols that?are secure outside the limitations of classical cryptosystems. In this paper, it proposes a quantum-assisting secure communication scheme (QASCP) to?boost the security and energy for smart grid communication systems. The proposed protocol combines quantum key distribution with lightweight entropy-based mutual authentication and dynamic session management. It is designed to defend grid assets such as control centers, smart meters, and distribute energy?resources from sophisticated adversarial models, including quantum-capable threats. The approach consists of system level simulation utilizing a?co-simulation framework customized for quantum smart grid communication. The performance of this scheme was compared?against classical and PQ lattice-based schemes in terms of the authentication latency, energy consumption, entropy preservation, and scalability to handle the load and delay effects, under the assumptions of different loading and delay scenarios. Simulation results show that QASCP is able to reduce the energy consumption and authenticity latency, simultaneously it keeps the high throughput and leaves strong entropy?under attack scenarios. The protocol is also shown to?remain robust with varying quantum bit error rates as well as having a smaller memory footprint on popular network topologies. The results provide evidence for the practical integration of?quantum-secure communication in smart grid architectures. By addressing security and performance simultaneously, the protocol?provides a path to future-proof energy networks which can support dependable operations in a quantum-enhanced environment. This could be future enhance for energy efficiency.
Quantum networks are considered to be the future of secure communication in the coming quantum era. However, significant efforts are lacking on developing practical quantum networks for power grids. This paper establishes a quantum network-based power grid (QNetGrid) framework and develops a real-time, reliable, flexible, programmable, and cost-effective QNetGrid software testbed containing repeater-based quantum communication, quantum routing, real software-defined networking (SDN) switches, and real-time networked microgrids (NMs) operations. It makes the following contributions: 1) a repeater and routing based quantum network simulator (QNSim) is developed, 2) repeaters with and without quantum memories are respectively simulated in QNSim, 3) different routing scenarios in QNetGrid are investigated, 4) a real-time QNetGrid software testbed is built in RTDS incorporating QNSim and real SDN switches, and 5) various test cases are designed, and experimental results produced with the QNetGrid testbed provide valuable insights for building quantum networks in power grids.
The classical key distribution systems used for data transmission in networked microgrids (NMGs) rely on mathematical assumptions, which however can be broken by attacks from quantum computers. This paper addresses this quantum-era challenge by using quantum key distribution (QKD). Specifically, the novelty of this paper includes 1) a QKD-enabled communication architecture it devises for NMGs, 2) a real-time QKD- enabled NMGs testbed it builds in an RTDS environment, and 3) a novel two-level key pool sharing (TLKPS) strategy it designs to improve the system resilience against cyberattacks. Test results validate the effectiveness of the presented strategy, and provide insightful resources for building quantum-secure NMGs.
The emergence of sixth-generation (6 G) wireless networks and the rapid development of Quantum Internet infrastructure have created unprecedented demands for ultrasecure communication. Classical cryptographic techniques, which depend on computational hardness, are vulnerable to quantum attacks enabled by powerful quantum algorithms. Quantum cryptography, particularly Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), offers information-theoretic security based on the principles of quantum mechanics, making it a foundational element for future network security. This paper investigates the integration of quantum cryptography within 6 G architectures and Quantum Internet frameworks, focusing on secure key exchange, entanglementassisted communication, and quantum-safe protocols. We analyze the challenges posed by channel loss, quantum repeater limitations, hardware constraints, and large-scale deployment in ultra-dense 6 G environments. Our study highlights the potential of hybrid quantum-classical security models and outlines how quantum cryptography can support resilient, scalable, and next-generation secure communication systems.
Electric power systems provide the backbone of modern industrial societies. Enabling scalable grid analytics is the keystone to successfully operating large transmission and distribution systems. However, today's power systems are suffering from ever-increasing computational burdens in sustaining the expanding communities and deep integration of renewable energy resources, as well as managing huge volumes of data accordingly. These unprecedented challenges call for transformative analytics to support the resilient operations of power systems. Recently, the explosive growth of quantum computing techniques has ignited new hopes of revolutionizing power system computations. Quantum computing harnesses quantum mechanisms to solve traditionally intractable computational problems, which may lead to ultra-scalable and efficient power grid analytics. This paper reviews the newly emerging application of quantum computing techniques in power systems. We present a comprehensive overview of existing quantum-engineered power analytics from different operation perspectives, including static analysis, transient analysis, stochastic analysis, optimization, stability, and control. We thoroughly discuss the related quantum algorithms, their benefits and limitations, hardware implementations, and recommended practices. We also review the quantum networking techniques to ensure secure communication of power systems in the quantum era. Finally, we discuss challenges and future research directions. This paper will hopefully stimulate increasing attention to the development of quantum-engineered smart grids.