Valerie Lucas, supervisor of strategic business for EPB, told the Chattanooga Civitan Club on Friday afternoon, "The next time you see your lights flicker in your home, the smart grid is working for you."
She said, "Our fastest speed offered is one gigabyte. That made us the fastest Internet provider in the Western Hemisphere."
However, she said, the success of EPB would not have been possible without many changes made by the Chattanooga community that started in the 60's.
After news anchor Walter Cronkite called Chattanooga the "most polluted city in the United States" in 1969, Ms. Lucas said many community members wanted to change this.
A city-wide cleaner air law was passed. The law gave industrial sites and factories three years to install equipment that would meet the new standards.
Ms. Lucas also said at this point, community members continued to meet to see how they could try to move the city forward. People wanted the downtown area to be lively and vibrant. As the city became cleaner, more restaurants and shops opened up.
A later mayor, Bob Corker, also moved to help clean up the waterfront area. He wanted people to be able to have events there.
Ms. Lucas said with all of these changes, EPB has been able to grow as well.
She said of the smart grid, "EPB realized that this fiber network could revolutionize something already used every day: the power grid."
She said in most situations, the smart grid can reroute power and fix outages in a matter of seconds.
She said, "This all would not have been possible had it not been for the community."