CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Nov. 22, 2024) – The EPB Board of Directors has approved a proposal to purchase energy at a price below TVA’s average wholesale rate from a solar installation to be constructed in West Tennessee. EPB is partnering with TVA and Nashville-based Silicon Ranch in the project which will be owned and operated by Silicon Ranch, with construction projected for completion in 2028.

Under the proposal, EPB will contract to purchase 33MW of energy from the new site at less than TVA’s average wholesale energy rate. Once the installation is in operation, EPB will realize savings of at least $1.6 million per year as part of its broader effort to contain rising energy costs as much as possible for customers.

“With economic trends pointing to rising energy costs nationally and across our region, this project represents a rare opportunity to lock in the price of energy at significant savings even compared with today’s wholesale energy rate,” said EPB CEO David Wade. “Although power generation from this project only accounts for a small percentage of the Chattanooga area’s total energy consumption, it is an important part of our larger effort to utilize a variety of energy resources such as local energy storage and microgrids to provide for our community’s energy needs as cost-effectively as possible.”

To ensure the Chattanooga area is prepared for future energy developments, EPB has set a goal of enhancing the EPB Local Energy Mix by growing the local energy storage capacity to about 150MW, or 10-15% of the area’s peak demand for electricity. Currently, EPB operates 6MW of energy storage in its service area to help reduce peak demand costs and preserve power for critical community assets during outages, including the Chattanooga Police Service Center and the Chattanooga Airport.

To grow this capacity, EPB is currently working to establish an additional 42MW of local energy storage and is also reaching out to local businesses to explore opportunities for additional storage facilities in commercial areas where they can be used to keep peak demand charges lower while enhancing electric service resiliency for companies that host the equipment.

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About EPB

EPB is a customer-focused technology company that delivers innovative power and telecommunications solutions to the Chattanooga area in pursuit of its mission to enhance the quality of life for the community it serves. In 2010, EPB completed a 100% fiber optic network accessible to all its customers as the basis for launching America’s first community-wide Gig speed internet. The company still operates the world’s fastest community-wide internet service today at speeds up to 25 Gig. EPB also utilizes Chattanooga’s fiber optic network as the communications backbone for the most advanced and highly automated power distribution system in the United States. In 2022, EPB continued its commitment to keeping Chattanooga on the cutting edge by establishing our nation’s first commercially available quantum network—EPB Quantum Network℠ powered by Qubitekk. This effort aligns local job creation efforts with the national priority to accelerate the commercialization of quantum technology.

Since switching the lights on for its first electric customer in 1939, EPB has grown to serve nearly a half a million people across a 600-square-mile service area with cutting-edge infrastructure that integrates power distribution and telecommunications. At the same time, EPB keeps customer benefit at the center of all its efforts, earning recognition from J.D. Power as the #1 Mid-Sized Utility in the South for the last eight consecutive years based on customer satisfaction ratings. Learn more at epb.com.