QFEVAL: Quantum Federated Ensembled Variational Adaptive Learning for Dynamic Security Assessment in Cyber-Physical Systems

In the era of smart cyber-physical grid, dynamic insecurity risk has become a significant concern due to the increasing integration of renewable energy sources and the inherent uncertainties in smart grid. Dynamic security assessment (DSA) has been adopted to hedge against such risks by estimating the stability of large-scale smart grids. Existing DSA approaches often involve complex high dimensional models which incur high communication and computational costs, hindering their practical adoption. In this paper, we address these limitations with the Quantum Federated Ensembled Variational Adaptive Learning (QFEVAL) approach for smart grid DSA. QFEVAL is designed to combine quantum machine learning and federated learning to handle the differential-algebraic equations that describe smart grid stability, providing an efficient way to deal with high-dimensional data and uncertainties. QFEVAL enables the training of the hybrid quantum-classical neural networks on distributed DSA datasets located at different nodes in smart grids, without requiring large numbers of parameters to be transmitted. QFEVAL accurately predicts the stability of the smart grid under various conditions, enabling the implementation of preventive stability control measures. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that QFEVAL achieves comparable performance to 9 state-of-the-art DSA approaches with more than 2 orders of magnitude fewer model parameter transmissions. QFEVAL paves the way for reliable, secure, and continuous electricity supply, offering a robust solution to the challenges of DSA in smart grids. © 2025 IEEE.