Chattanooga's internet and electricity provider has been ahead of multiple national technology trends, and its leadership on the next era of computing will contribute to $10 billion of economic impact by 2035, according to a peer-reviewed study.
It's a conservative estimate, according to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga professor who led the research for EPB. By 2035, the utility will likely have put Chattanooga on the map as America's "Quantum City" as well as "Gig City," said Bento Lobo, department head of finance and economics at UTC.
"My approach, as many of you will know, is always to err on the side of underestimating than overestimating. I'm very conservative with the numbers," Lobo told the EPB board on Friday. "I think we'll be over those numbers by the time 2035 comes around, but I'm comfortable presenting them now."
The report includes the impact of EPB's automated smart grid, fiber optics network and the future impact of its quantum computing and networking center.
The smart grid, which shortens or prevents power outages, and the high-speed internet have generated $5.3 billion in economic impact since 2011, according to the study. The value of the infrastructure has exceeded its cost more than six times over, Lobo said.
The economist has prepared the reports for EPB since 2006, as the city-owned company prepared to launch construction of an automated smart grid and high-speed internet through a fiber optic network. The completion of the gigabit-speed network in 2011, aided by a $111 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, gave Chattanooga claim to the world's fastest internet.
The EPB fiber optic network cost $396 million, according to previous research by the economist.
"The cost of the project is built in," Lobo said of the report in an interview. "What the matching grant did was speed up the build out. We got to value quicker because the infrastructure got built out sooner than anticipated."
The automated grid avoided 39 million minutes of customer power outages and saved $4 million in 2025, according to EPB's annual report. The 90-year-old company has around 203,000 electricity customers and 133,000 internet customers.
METRICS MEASURED
How does the professor measure the economic impact of infrastructure?
Because of profits generated from the fiber optics system, EPB has been able to keep its electric rates lower, Lobo said. Without the broadband network, EPB would have had to increase electricity rates up to 6.4% to make the same revenue.
"It's been a wildly successful business model," Lobo told the board. "It's a bit of a head-scratcher for many of us."
The network has prevented nearly 418 million minutes of power outages and saved customers $945 million in outage-related costs over time, according to the study. EPB has maintained the lowest price per megabit of internet service locally while offering the highest speed, the study said.
EPB began in 2022 offering internet speeds up to 25 gigabits per second, or 25,000 megabits per second, which officials said made Chattanooga the first city in the world to offer that speed to homes and businesses.
The study looked 10 years into the future, projecting that the fiber optic network paired with quantum computing would generate another $5 billion in local economic impact and support 8,000 new jobs.
EPB announced in April it would buy a quantum computer from Maryland-based IonQ for $22 million. The company is finishing setup of the computer and plans to begin operating it in February, said EPB CEO-elect Janet Rehberg, who has overseen the quantum work.
Revenue from the commercial quantum computing center, the nation's first commercial quantum network paired with a quantum computer, will come primarily from EPB selling time to other companies to use the machine.
The computer, which uses technology at the atomic level to compute information faster than classical computers, will help EPB upgrade its smart grid capabilities. Quantum technology alone will contribute between $688 million and $1.1 billion in economic impact by 2035, according to the study.
JOBS, PUBLIC SERVICES
The study includes metrics like jobs created, savings from outages and electricity rate hikes avoided and even positive media coverage of EPB infrastructure. The high-speed internet has been especially valuable, accounting for 70% of the overall economic impact since 2011, according to the study.
The impact can be sorted into two broad categories, Lobo said: things that didn't happen because of the automated grid and high-speed internet, and things that did happen because of them. William Plank, EPB's community economist, helped prepare the report.
The infrastructure supported the creation of 10,420 jobs between 2011 and 2024, or 31% of all jobs created in the area, the study said. EPB generated $84 million for local schools and public services through payments in lieu of taxes related to the network.
(READ MORE: TVA pays extra $260M to 10,900 employees based on 2025 performance)
EPB has provided free high-speed internet to more than 28,000 Hamilton County Schools students and their family members since 2020 through a program called HCS EdConnect.
"EPB's fiber network fundamentally changed Chattanooga, and the city-owned utility continues to set us apart from other destinations," Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said in a press release. "Chattanooga remains a magnet for tech startups, remote workers, researchers and more because of EPB's innovation, which will only continue with the advancements in the quantum network."
EPB purchases and distributes wholesale electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public power provider. TVA is based in Knoxville, but has more employees in Chattanooga than any other city.
