Sydney – October 01, 2026 -- Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) and Schneider Electric have advanced to Stage 2 of Australia's Critical Technologies Challenge Program (CTCP), securing A$3.6 million (US$2.5 million) in government funding after their quantum-enhanced forecasting trial delivered an average 20% accuracy improvement, with peak gains of 41%.
Quantum chip lifted next-day energy forecasting accuracy by up to 41%
In Stage 1, the partners applied SQC's atomically engineered Watermelon chip to Schneider Electric's next-day forecasting models over a 12-month dataset. Watermelon generates quantum features that combine with classical inputs to produce richer, more predictive models, outperforming the classical benchmark by an average of 20%.
Stage 2 expands trial to hundreds of Australian homes
The new funding, delivered in partnership with UNSW Sydney, will scale the modelling to hundreds of households and integrate the system directly into Schneider Electric's AI workflows. The expansion targets real-world deployment as rooftop solar, home batteries and electric vehicles push distributed energy resources toward unpredictable, grid-straining variability.
Michelle Simmons, Founder and CEO of SQC, said the results show quantum processors can work alongside CPUs and GPUs to deliver measurable gains on time-series datasets beyond energy. Colette Munro, Pacific Zone President at Schneider Electric, said the technology has the potential to lower consumer energy costs while improving efficiency across increasingly complex grid systems.
Watermelon already serves telecom, banking and trading clients
Launched in 2025, Watermelon is currently deployed with customers in telecommunications, banking and high-frequency trading, offered via cloud access or hardware sale, including turnkey data center installation.