This electric utility is on the cusp of quantum innovation

• Chattanooga, Tennessee utility EPB has a network testbed for quantum developers 
• An R&D outfit is using the testbed to figure out how to prevent data from being damaged on a quantum network, even if there’s stress on the fiber optic cables
• EPB is also thinking about how quantum computing can address rising energy consumption

Quantum networking may sound like a thing of the future, but it’s a work in progress and electric utility EPB is at the forefront of that research.

EPB, which provides fiber optic service to the city of Chattanooga in Tennessee, partnered with Qubitekk in 2022 to launch the first commercially available quantum network in the U.S. But why did a utility decide to dive into quantum networking in the first place? The journey began in 2016, when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) enlisted EPB to undertake cybersecurity research based on quantum technology.

Between 2016 and 2020, EPB “made a [13-mile] dark fiber path that passed through that passed through seven of our electric system substations available to this DOE-sponsored research to do what’s called quantum key distribution,” said Jim Ingraham, EPB’s VP of Strategic Research.

QKD is a communication method that allows two parties to exchange an encryption key known only to them. A number of telecom operators, including Verizon in the U.S. and BT, Telefonica, Orange and Deutsche Telekom in Europe have been tinkering with the tech. As has EPB, of course. 

“Basically, it gave us an ability to prove that you could detect anybody trying to interfere with any of the equipment that was on in those substations,” Ingraham told Fierce.

Following the launch of EPB’s quantum network, the utility unveiled a subscription model for quantum developers to test their technologies. EPB’s testbed allows researchers to prove their technology works and make an argument that it “has a revenue potential as a practical application.”

“We believe in 10 years it’ll be possible to build a quantum internet,” Ingraham said.

According to a recent McKinsey and Co. report on quantum technology, “the ecosystem continues to progress toward unlocking an estimated economic value of ~$2 trillion by 2035.” In the meantime, EPB is striving to “learn everything we can” about quantum computing.

Prepping fiber for quantum networking

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center, is using EPB’s quantum network to test a technology called Automatic Polarization Compensation (APC).

Essentially, APC helps mitigate interference from the elements, like wind, temperature and other environmental disruptions, that could affect the fiber optic cables transmitting quantum data.

“Regular fiber internet is not very polarization sensitive,” said Joseph Chapman, research scientist at ORNL’s quantum communications and networking group.

Polarization is a concept that explains the behavior of light and other particles at the microscopic level. In short, it’s the tendency of particles to align with an external force or field. According to Chapman, polarization is one of the most common ways to encode information in quantum communications.

Classical networks don’t have to worry about maintaining polarization because “you’re really just concerned about the intensity of the light you’re detecting on the network,” said Shaun Gleason, director of ORNL’s Science-Security Initiative Integration.

Transmitting information on a quantum network is a bit more complicated.

“When the fiber is stressed and heated through either swinging on a line or in the ground or it’s heating up in a comms room, things are being reconfigured,” Chapman explained. “The polarization can get significantly changed because the fiber is bent and twisted…that can completely corrupt the entanglement – the information – you want to send.”

The idea behind APC is to “send some reference signal to measure the polarization along with your quantum signal,” which would ensure the encoded data remains undamaged.

“You have to absolutely preserve that polarization on a quantum network, or you lose all the quantum effects and quantum information that you’re trying to move around [in] the network,” Gleason added.

Questions quantum could answer

Indeed, the study of quantum technology is a growing area of interest in telecom. Spanish vendor Cinfo is working with telco MásOrange to figure out how quantum computing can mitigate network outages due to disasters or security incidents.

Italian startup QTI has developed quantum tech that has applications in national and cross-border backbones, defense telecommunications infrastructure and more. Cisco meanwhile has an incubation unit, Outshift, that’s focused on advancements in quantum computing along with artificial intelligence (AI).

EPB’s also thinking about how quantum technology can address energy consumption. “We have a capacity problem in our country,” Ingraham noted, as the data centers powering AI are using “more and more electricity.”

“We need that artificial intelligence to learn how to manage an electric system where we have batteries, distributed generators, switches and sensors in the thousands,” he concluded. “We’re moving aggressively to learn to build the models, the control systems that allow us to dispatch and manage that…keep electricity as affordable as we possibly can, clean as we possibly can.”

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