The biggest research laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy is establishing a partnership with Chattanooga’s electric utility to help test new quantum technologies to improve the security of the electric grid and develop more workers in Tennessee for the growing advanced energy and computer markets such technology will need in the future.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and EPB, which have been working together on grid security systems for the past decade, announced Friday a new Collaborative for Energy Resilience and Quantum program which Oak Ridge’s new director said could be a “major step forward” in building on the research being done at the 70-employee Quantum Science Center in Oak Ridge.
The collaborative will take advantage of EPB’s fiber optic network, which boasts the fastest communitywide internet service in North America, and EPB’s new quantum network, which is billed as one of only two such commercial networks capable of quantum information transfers anywhere in the world.
“There’s tremendous potential for ORNL to build on our work with EPB,” said Stephen K. Streiffer, who was named to head the Oak Ridge lab three months ago and made his first trip to Chattanooga Friday. “By bringing together our respective research capabilities and cutting-edge deployment, we can substantially advance research and move it toward practical application and commercialization.”
Within the next three years, Streiffer said he hopes to physically connect EPB’s new commercial quantum network with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory 100 miles up the road in East Tennessee “so we can really build up a bigger quantum ecosystem.”
“This is an important way to get that real world experience that we just don’t get back at the home laboratory,” Streiffer said Friday during his first visit to Chattanooga.
The new ORNL director said he is eager to deploy the pioneering research done in what was once called “the Secret City” that developed the first atomic bomb in World War II. Today, Oak Ridge is the largest of the 17 Department of Energy laboratories across the country, receiving $2.7 billion a year in federal funding for a range of energy and science research projects.
EPB partnership
At the urging of U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Southeast Tennessee, EPB began in 2014 working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers in a partnership to help better analyze and control the volumes of data gathered continuously from EPB’s fiber-optic network attached to Chattanooga’s electric grid. Over the next five years, the researchers were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of quantum key distribution as a means of secure communication for electricity suppliers, which was recognized in 2021 as a winner of an R&D 100 for being one of the top research projects in the country.
The cutting-edge quantum science and network security system uses quantum communications in an effort to protect power grid control signals from cyber attacks. Working with the Silicon Valley, California-based technology company known as Qubitekk — started by former Oak Ridge researcher Duncan Earl — EPB developed the nation’s first commercial quantum network to help test new quantum technologies.
The technology harnesses single particles of light, or photons, to distribute cryptographic keys that can be used to lock control signals into secret codes to protect the electric grid. This novel method brings the security assurances of quantum communication systems to long-haul distances of electric grid systems.
The quantum technology developed from the project is one of 30 different projects totaling $180 million of research funding from the federal government that has come from the Oak Ridge and EPB partnership, Fleischmann said.
Political ties
As chair of the Energy and Water subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Fleischmann helps oversee the budget for the U.S. Department of Energy and other related federal agencies and said he tries to work in a bipartisan way to support the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has about 6,600 employees and supports numerous businesses in the Tennessee Valley. Although Fleischmann joined with other Republicans to oppose many of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure measures, including the Inflation Reduction Act, he said he is working on a fiscal 2024 budget he said would increase the budget for DOE’s Office of Science and other programs.
READ MORE: Congressman Fleischmann urges ORNL to open lab in Chattanooga
During a news conference at EPB’s headquarters Friday, Fleischmann recalled his discussions with President Obama’s Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, more than a decade ago about expanding some of the research in Oak Ridge to his hometown of Chattanooga.
“He came to me and said we need to take a national lab off of its great but parochial boundaries, and I said Mr. Secretary that is great, and where in Chattanooga are we going to do that,” Fleischmann said. “I said that because of the Electric Power Board and because I knew it was uniquely possible to do this collaboration here.”
READ MORE: EPB plans $65 million upgrade of power grid
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly also praised EPB’s pioneering work in energy grids, fiber optic communications and quantum technologies. Such programs grew out of a $111.7 million federal grant 15 years ago to help EPB initially build a fiber-based electric grid and telecommunications network that has since been enhanced with its partnership with Oak Ridge, Kelly said.
“Infrastructure investments work,” Kelly said during Friday’s announcement of the new EPB and Oak Ridge initiative.
A 2021 study by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Economist Bento Lobo estimates EPB’s fiber optic network generated nearly $2.7 billion of economic benefits for Chattanooga in the previous decade.
“We’re just getting started,” Kelly said.
Targets of research
Streiffer said the new partnership between EPB and ORNL is still taking shape but will focus on four key areas:
— Quantum science and technology projects, including research breakthroughs to enable distribution of quantum information over long distances.
— Energy security innovation, including quantum and digital technologies for safer and more reliable power grid information and service.
— Workforce development, including internships and talent pipelines for computer science, quantum physics and other skill needs for the growing quantum economy.
— Economic development that helps commercialize new quantum technologies.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.