The Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, or EPB, provides electric power and 21st century fiber optic communications services to customers in the greater Chattanooga, Tennessee area. EPB’s electric service area includes nearly 180,000 homes and businesses in a 600 square-mile area that covers most of Hamilton County, as well as parts of surrounding counties and areas of North Georgia. 

 

From affordable and renewable energy to a revolutionary smart grid, EPB has helped to transform the city of Chattanooga into a living laboratory for new technologies designed to solve real-world energy problems, improve quality of life and help grow the local economy.

 

Founded in 1935 as an independent board of the City of Chattanooga, EPB has built a long-standing reputation of pioneering operations and processes to benefit EPB customers. In 1970, EPB instituted one of the first computer-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, systems in the country to aid in service restoration. A decade later, EPB installed the Tennessee Valley’s first outage management system enabling quicker power restoration and decreased customer outage time.  The implementation of these cutting-edge technologies established EPB as a name recognized for consistent innovation and continuous process improvement. 

 

The new millennium marked the beginning of unprecedented technological advancement for EPB. From 2000 to 2003, EPB launched its telecommunication services under the name EPB Telecom, which allowed the company to provide high-speed data and Internet services over an all-fiber network to commercial customers at 300 times the speed of traditional providers. 

Then in 2008, EPB began construction of the nation’s most automated smart grid - a revolutionary, self-healing electric system with a robust fiber optic backbone to support real-time communications for reducing outages, improving response time and to help customers manage their electric power usage. 

 

In just two years, EPB completed the deployment of 9,000 miles of fiber optics creating a community network that encompasses all of the homes and businesses in its service area. In addition to serving as the communications backbone for Chattanooga’s smart grid, EPB’s community-wide fiber optic network drove the launch of the EPB Fiber Optics division, which provides commercial and residential services including internet, television, and telephone.  In 2010, EPB became the first provider in the United States to deliver up to 1 Gig (1,000 mbps) internet speeds to every home and business in its service area, making Chattanooga "The Gig City." 

 

By 2012, EPB had built out the smart grid which includes more than 200 automated smart switches, 1,200 IntelliRuptor switches and more than 180,000 smart meters giving customers online access to their power usage data that is updated in real time every 15 minutes. Chattanooga’s smart grid has prevented or minimized power outages by an average of 50%, saving customers about $50 million annually by reducing lost productivity, spoiled food and other negative impacts caused by power outages.

 

In 2015, EPB became the first (and to date) only American ISP to make up to 10 Gig (10,000 mbps) internet speeds accessible to all of its residential and commercial customers as a standard offer. 

 

In addition to electric and telecommunication services, EPB is dedicated to environmental stewardship and offering clean, renewable energy and mobility choices. In April of 2017, EPB announced the roll-out of three EPB Driving Change electrical vehicles for Chattanooga’s Green Commuter EV Car Share Program. In July of 2017, EPB launched Solar Share a community solar installation that allows customers to experience the benefits of solar power without individual rooftop installations through Chattanooga’s first community solar initiative. 

 

EPB is the first major power distribution utility to earn the USGBC’s PEER certification for having a highly automated, modernized electric power grid. Based on customer feedback, J.D. Power named EPB the best mid-sized utility in the Southern region in both 2016 and 2017. For the last two years, the Consumer Reports customer survey rated EPB Fiber Optics one of the best internet service providers in the U.S, and PC Mag named it America’s top internet service providers for gaming.

 

From powering its first six homes in 1939 to making electricity, phone, TV and the world’s fastest Internet available to all customers within its service area,  EPB has been taking innovative approaches for community improvement for 78 years. These and other revolutionary efforts have established EPB as a pioneering company empowered with forward thinking to achieve a smarter, more efficient and more sustainable future for Chattanooga.