About

Location of partners

EDF - Quandela - Alice&Bob

CNRS|QET> - QEI#

The French electric utility company EDF, along with quantum computing companies Quandela and Alice & Bob, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), have joined forces in an innovative project to optimize energy consumption in quantum computing.
The project, named "Optimisation Energétique de Circuits Quantiques" (OECQ), seeks to compare the energy requirements of solving relevant industry use-cases on classical high-performance computing (HPC) systems versus quantum systems and their enabling technologies, providing the first measurement of energy efficiency for the full stack of a real quantum computer.

The OECQ project addresses a crucial question: can quantum computers be a more energy-efficient alternative to classical HPC systems?
To address this question, the project will estimate the energy consumption of a full stack quantum computer on computationally and energy intensive industry-relevant problems in optimisation, physical simulation and material science. The optimisation of the energy performance of current quantum processors with long term use-cases in mind seeks an eventual quantum energy advantage, where quantum computing is energetically more favourable than classical methods. This is fundamentally different from the habitual resolution speed advantage expected from quantum technologies.

More precisely the project will be articulated as follows:
- EDF identifies the relevant, energy-hungry, use cases for which a resource comparison will be run, and measures the energy requirements to solve such use cases with classical HPCs.
- Quantum hardware players Alice & Bob and Quandela will estimate the energy budget that a quantum algorithm would require for the same use cases if solved using current quantum systems.
- Alice & Bob and Quandela will then leverage the insights gained to build and test new, more energy-efficient quantum processor prototypes, demonstrating that energy needs can be reduced.
- Throughout the whole project CNRS will ensure methodological excellence and compute the theoretical bounds for energy consumption.