Fiber for Breakfast Week 33: EPB Quantum Computer: From Municipal Energy to Quantum Tech 

Fiber for Breakfast Week 33: EPB Quantum Computer: From Municipal Energy to Quantum Tech 

EPB has never treated fiber as just a faster way to connect homes and businesses. From the beginning, the Chattanooga municipal utility saw fiber as infrastructure that could strengthen the electric grid, improve service for the community, and create opportunities that were hard to fully imagine at the time.  

This week’s Fiber for Breakfast showed how that same approach is now moving into quantum. Gary sat down with Janet Rehberg, President and CEO-Elect of EPB, to discuss how EPB is building on its fiber leadership and helping Chattanooga become a hub for quantum networking and computing. 

EPB’s story started with grid modernization. In the early 2000s, the utility needed a way for grid devices to communicate with one another, which led to the deployment of fiber across its service territory. By 2009, EPB offered internet, phone, and video services. A year later, Chattanooga became the first city with community-wide gigabit service.  

That decision changed the city’s trajectory. Rehberg noted that an independent study by Dr. Bento Lobo at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found that EPB’s fiber network has generated more than $5.3 billion in community benefits and helped retain or recruit more than 10,000 jobs. The question EPB began asking was whether quantum could create the next wave of value for Chattanooga.  

In many ways, EPB’s entry into quantum began unexpectedly. In 2016, the Department of Energy needed a utility partner for a project focused on using quantum technology to secure the electric grid. When another utility stepped away from the project, EPB got the call. The timeline was short, but former CEO David Wade recognized the opportunity.  

As Rehberg recalled, Wade joked, “I couldn’t even spell ‘quantum’ at the time, but I knew this was an opportunity.” 

That decision opened the door to a much larger vision. In 2023, EPB introduced the first commercially available quantum network, giving universities, national labs, startups, and companies a place to test quantum security and networking technologies at a fraction of what it would cost to build that environment themselves. Now, EPB is adding quantum computing to the equation with an IonQ Forte Enterprise computer built in Chattanooga.  

Rehberg explained quantum networking in simple terms. Classical networks can protect information with encryption keys, but users may not always know if someone has accessed or copied those keys. Quantum networking uses principles like entanglement, where a change to one particle is reflected in another, making it possible to detect when information has been compromised. For a critical infrastructure provider managing both energy and communications, security matters.  

The quantum computer adds another layer of innovation. Unlike classical computers that work through problems sequentially, quantum computers can evaluate many possibilities at once using superposition. That could eventually help solve complex challenges in areas like grid optimization, cybersecurity, logistics, materials science, energy demand, and AI. 

What makes EPB’s approach different is that this is not happening inside a closed research lab. It is being built as commercial infrastructure. Companies will be able to buy time on the quantum computer, use the quantum network, and test real-world applications. Rehberg also pointed to research projecting that quantum computing could deliver $2.7 trillion in economic value to companies worldwide by 2035, underscoring why EPB sees quantum as the next major economic opportunity for Chattanooga. EPB is also working to build the surrounding ecosystem, from UTC’s quantum programs to Vanderbilt’s planned Chattanooga campus, IonQ’s local presence, new workforce pathways for students, and a Quantum in Business Summit on October 1st designed to help companies understand how quantum can optimize their businesses.

Gary connected the discussion back to Chattanooga’s broader transformation. The city once used fiber to reposition itself as a place where startups, businesses, students, and residents could thrive. Now, EPB is working to make quantum the next chapter in that same economic development story.

The broader takeaway is that communities do not stumble into the future. They build the infrastructure that makes the future possible. EPB’s fiber network helped Chattanooga become a gigabit city. Now, that same infrastructure mindset is positioning the city for quantum networking, quantum computing, and the next wave of connected innovation.  

Click here to watch the full interview.  

Click here to view the slides.