*Started: 1935
*Ownership: EPB is an indendent board of the city of Chattanooga
*Services: Distributor of electricity generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and fiber-optic communications, including gigabit-speed internet, television and telephone services, in a 600-square-mile area in and around Chattanooga.
*Customers: EPB delivers power to more than 170,000 homes and businesses and has more than 94,000 customers of EPB Fiber Optics, which includes internet, television and phone services for residential customers and high-speed data links for business.
*Governance: EPB is headed by President and CEO David Wade and is governed by a 5-member board appointed by the mayor of Chattanooga. EPB is regulated by TVA, the city of Chattanooga and the Tennessee Comptroller's Office.
*Revenues: EPB projects it will generate $584.3 million in electricity sales and $159.9 million in revenues from its video, internet and telephone services.
*Headquarters: In 2006, EPB moved into its headquarters building erected at Market Street and M.L. King Boulevard. The 95,000-square-foot building is Chattanooga's first LEED Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) certified commercial structure.
*Power distinctions: EPB is one of the 50 biggest municipal electric suppliers in the country and was the first major power distributor to earn the U.S. Green Building Council's PEER certification for its automated, modern electric grid. J.D. Power ranked EPB the top electric utility in the South based on their customer satisfaction survey in both 2016 and 2017.
*Telecom distinctions: In 2010, EPB became the first provider in the Western Hemisphere of community-wide 1 Gig (1,000 mbps) internet speeds. In 2015, EPB became the first American internet service provider to make up to 10 Gig (10,000 mbps) internet speeds accessible to all residential and commercial customers as a standard offer. In 2016, Consumer Reports ranked EPB Fiber Optics as the nation's best internet and television services provider and for the past two years PC Magazine ranked EPB Fiber Optics as America's "Best Internet Service Provider for Gaming."
*New initiatives: EPB launched a solar share program in July that allows customers to buy or lease part of the 1.4 megawatt solar array along Holtzclaw Avenue across from Warner Park, where EPB has erected 4,408 power-generating solar panels. EPB also is working with researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study and upgrade EPB's smart electric grid and in September it energized a 100 kilowatt vanadium redox flow battery as part of the Grid Modernization Lab Consortium.
*The brand: Originally the Electric Power Board, the municipal utility tightened its name to EPB in 1999 when it introduced a new brand and symbol. EPB Fiber Optics was established as an additional business division and brand for the operation of the company's internet, television, and telephone product offerings.