  Unit commitment with multiple networked microgrids (UCMNM) is a typical
mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. It requires coordination between
the local utility grid and the microgrids. We introduce quantum computing in
Generalized Benders decomposition algorithm (GBDA) framework and propose a
hybrid distributed decomposition algorithm in this work, named as hybrid
quantum-classical generalized Benders decomposition algorithm (HQC-GBDA). For
privacy-preserving and independent decision-making, HQC-GBDA decomposes the
UCMNM problem into a master problem and a series of sub-problems. The NP-Hard
master problem with discrete variables can be transformed into the quadratic
unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which can be settled by the
quantum annealing algorithm. The main contributions of this work include: 1)
Based on GBDA, we propose a multi-cut generalized Benders decomposition
algorithm (MC-GBDA), which adds the Benders feasibility cutting planes to the
master problem more efficiently; 2) In HQC-GBDA, we reconstruct the NP-Hard
master problem into the QUBO problem, which is suitable to be solved by quantum
computing and further reduce the complexity of the master problem; 3) We use
the D-WAVE quantum annealing machine to solve the QUBO problem of HQC-GBDA and
find that HQC-GBDA is faster than its classical counterpart MC-GBDA when
dealing with more complex UCMNM problems.
