TL;DR · 30-second read
The Short Version
- Chattanooga’s city-owned electric company, EPB, has switched on a quantum computer, an experimental machine that works very differently from a laptop, built by a company called IonQ.
- Its first job is to help the power company run its own electric grid more cheaply and reliably, paid for by a $4 million federal science grant.
- Local universities will start using it in early October.
- It is unusual for a power company to host a computer like this, and the bigger promises about jobs and economic growth are still forecasts.
EPB, the municipally owned electric and fiber provider in Chattanooga, Tennessee, said on Sept. 18, 2026 that it has launched an IonQ Forte Enterprise quantum computer at its EPB Quantum Center, in a release distributed via PR Newswire. The utility describes the site as America’s first commercial hub offering both quantum computing and quantum networking under one roof.
The first users are eight EPB Quantum Computing Fellows, graduate researchers funded by a $4 million National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) grant, who are developing algorithms to optimize EPB’s power grid. EPB says its quantum computing service opens for business in early October, with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) as its first customer and Vanderbilt University lining up a first project.
Executive Summary
EPB is adding a quantum computer to a quantum network it launched in 2023, turning an electric utility into a host for specialized computing. The machine comes from IonQ, which separately is investing $15 million in a Tennessee Quantum Communications Research Center in Chattanooga with plans for about two dozen jobs. EPB, IonQ, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NVIDIA have also installed a classical supercomputer inside the same facility for a hybrid project that combines the two kinds of computing to optimize parts of EPB’s automated grid.
What matters most is the order of use. Before any outside business pays for time, the machine’s first workload is the utility’s own grid, followed by two universities. That gives the system a guaranteed, research-grade user base on day one, but it also means commercial demand from companies outside academia and EPB itself is not yet demonstrated in the announcement.
The release also cites larger projections, including up to $1.1 billion in local economic gains over a decade and $2.7 trillion in potential economic value from quantum computing, which are forecasts rather than commitments.
The Anchor Tenant Is the Grid Itself
Any operator hosting expensive, scarce compute faces the same early problem: keeping the machine busy with work that justifies it. EPB’s answer is to be its own first customer. According to the utility, the EPB Quantum Computing Fellows, eight graduate researchers funded by a $4 million NIST grant, will be the first to run workloads, specifically algorithms aimed at optimizing local power grid circuits to reduce costs and improve resilience. The hybrid project with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NVIDIA and IonQ points at the same target: portions of EPB’s automated electric grid.
This is the mechanism behind the headline. A utility running a highly automated grid has a built-in optimization problem, such as how power flows through circuits and how to reconfigure them, that it can hand to a new computing platform without first finding a buyer. External demand comes next, and it is academic: UTC begins in early October with research it is already prepared to run, and Vanderbilt is still lining up its first project. For vendors like IonQ, a host that brings its own workload lowers the risk of an idle installation. For other utilities, the takeaway is narrower but real: owning the problem can be as important as owning the power or the fiber.
The flip side is that the announcement names no paying commercial customer outside universities. The model is anchored in research, and its commercial proof point is still ahead.
Why a Utility Can Host Compute at All
Most compute hosts are data-center operators or cloud providers. EPB’s case rests on assets a typical utility does not have. It built a 100% fiber-to-the-home network starting in 2010, now offering service up to 25 gigabits per second, and launched the EPB Quantum Network in 2023. Quantum networking, which moves fragile quantum information over fiber, depends on exactly the kind of dark and lit fiber a telecom-savvy utility controls.
The Board chair’s comparison to the 2010 gig-speed rollout is the strategic tell: EPB is repeating a playbook of building infrastructure ahead of demand and marketing the city around it. That worked for broadband. Whether it works for a technology still largely in the research phase is a different question, and the release is candid that the near-term users are researchers.
Hybrid, Not Quantum Alone
One of the more substantive details is easy to miss: a classical supercomputer now sits inside the EPB Quantum Center. Quantum processors today generally work alongside conventional computers rather than replacing them, with the classical machine handling most of the calculation and the quantum system tackling specific sub-problems. Co-locating both, with a national laboratory and NVIDIA as collaborators, is a practical design choice that reflects how quantum workloads are actually run.
For facility operators, that means a quantum site is not just a single exotic box. It carries the power, cooling and networking requirements of conventional high-performance computing too, which is one more reason a utility with its own grid and fiber is a plausible host.
Commitments Versus Projections
The release mixes firm commitments with forecasts, and they deserve different weight. Concrete items include the $4 million NIST grant, eight fellows, IonQ’s $15 million research center with about two dozen planned jobs, the October service start, and an academy expected to serve roughly 400 high school students a year from 2028.
Softer items include UTC’s plan to add 135 to 240 faculty, staff and students, Vanderbilt’s roughly 250-person institute, the Mayor’s figure of up to $1.1 billion in local economic gains over a decade, and a projected $2.7 trillion in near-term economic value from quantum computing. The release does not give the methodology behind the latter two figures. The “first” claims are also carefully qualified: first to offer commercially available quantum computing and quantum networking in one facility, not the first quantum computer available commercially in the country.
Background
EPB is a Chattanooga utility that provides both electricity and communications. In 2010 it began building a 100% fiber-to-the-home network that it describes as the world’s first community-wide gig-speed internet service, now offering up to 25 gigabits per second, alongside a highly automated electric grid. In 2023 it launched the EPB Quantum Network, and UTC became what the release calls the first American university connected to a commercial quantum network.
IonQ is a quantum computing company whose Forte Enterprise system is now installed at the EPB Quantum Center. Quantum computers use the physics of very small particles to approach certain problems, such as optimization and simulation, differently from conventional machines, though most practical work today pairs them with classical computers. Source: EPB Launches IonQ Forte Enterprise Quantum Computer in Chattanooga, EPB’s announcement of its quantum computing launch, first users and related local investments.Sources