Tuesday night's fierce storm cost EPB an estimated $2.5 million, President David Wade said Friday.
He said the city utility will have to bear all the cost - unlike when it got federal aid after spending $18 million following tornadoes that raked the Chattanooga area in 2012.
Mr. Wade said EPB's Smart Grid helped ease the pain, bringing back online about 27,000 affected customers quickly through its automated rerouting system.
He said, "Before the Smart Grid, we would have been working all night making all those switches manually."
Mr. Wade added, "And 10 years ago we would have had 93,000 customers initially out of power instead of 60,000 this time."
He said it was "the largest storm we have dealt with since the tornadoes" with its straight-line winds of up to 80 mph. It had surges of hail that, among other damage, broke out the rear windshield of an EPB employee who was trying to get home.
Mr. Wade said, before the Smart Grid, "This would have been a four-day storm instead of a two-day one."
He said crews were brought in from the region - mainly from north Tennessee and Kentucky.
Mr. Wade praised the work of EPB staff for working long hours without sleep to get the power restored.