QCNEWS
EPB's Chattanooga network pairs IonQ's trapped ion computer (charged atoms held in electromagnetic traps) with a photonic backbone, four months after joining a regional quantum collaborative.
The EPB Quantum Network in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is becoming the first commercial site to offer integrated access to two distinct quantum machines: a trapped-ion computer (data held in charged atoms inside electromagnetic traps) and a photonic network that shuttles quantum-encoded light between nodes. The host is a regional utility, not a research lab. EPB joined the Southeastern Quantum Collaborative on March 31, 2026 and is installing an IonQ Forte Enterprise system as part of that partnership. The network already hosts Oak Ridge National Laboratory's first run on a commercial quantum network. EPB has prior collaborations with both Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory on quantum-resilient communications for power-grid management — the Oak Ridge partnership was announced in January 2024 as the Collaborative for Energy Resilience and Quantum Science (CERQS), and the Los Alamos partnership was announced in March 2026 deploying Qunnect's Quantum-Layer (Q-Layer) technology. The utility-as-host model builds on EPB's grid-side experience testing quantum-aware security on a live distribution network.