Chattanooga headquartered power distribution company EPB and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have launched the Collaborative for Energy Resilience and Quantum Science.
The Collaborative aims to focus on utilizing Chattanooga’s advanced integrated energy and communications infrastructure to develop technologies and best practices for enhancing the resilience and security of the national power grid while accelerating the commercialization of quantum technologies.
EPB in partnership with Qubitekk has launched the first commercially available quantum network in the US and building on a 10-year history of collaboration with ORNL extending to almost 30 projects, the two organizations anticipate further fundamental advances for energy system resilience, reliability, and security.
“Working together, EPB and ORNL have advanced technologies that we will eventually be able to deploy for the immediate benefit of our local customers while providing a model for how other utilities can modernize their technology and operations,” commented David Wade, CEO of EPB.
“Building on our successful efforts over the last ten years, we have a unique opportunity to operationalize cutting-edge advancements with the goal of enhancing power grid security and reliability both locally and nationally.”
Much of the joint research between EPB and ORNL has focused on quantum cybersecurity technology.
In a project also including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Qubitekk, quantum cryptographic technologies were demonstrated across a fiber optic network that EPB established between some of its electricity substations.
As a result of this work, the EPB Quantum Network powered by Qubiteckk was launched to accelerate the commercialization of quantum technologies.
The Collaborative for Energy Resilience and Quantum Science is focused on four strategic goals:
● National leadership in quantum science and technology, including research breakthroughs that enable the distribution of quantum information over long distances, the connection of diverse quantum technologies, commercialization in the supply chain, and demonstrated improvements in business productivity.
● Energy security innovation, including research, development, and deployment of novel quantum and digital technologies to create a next-generation grid energy distribution system that demonstrates improved service resilience and reliability and that is affordable and flexible, environmentally sustainable, and cyber-secure for customers.
● Workforce development to support the quantum economy in East Tennessee, in partnership with community colleges, universities, and businesses among others.
● Economic development that moves quantum technology from research to commercialization over 10 years, positioning East Tennessee to capture investment in the quantum economy and to create new companies in the quantum manufacturing supply chain and business productivity applications development.
Other EPB- ORNL projects have included the development of advanced energy models to optimize power distribution, the utilization of predictive algorithms to identify likely energy equipment failures so they can be addressed before customers lose power, and the deployment of dynamic microgrids that can be rapidly scaled to meet changing energy needs with intermittent supply from renewables.
Originally published by Jonathan Spencer Jones in Smart Energy International.
