“Smart City” At Center Of Power Grid Study, Remote Control Of Electricity, And Other World Economic Forum Initiatives

"Smart City" At Center Of Power Grid Study, Remote Control Of Electricity, And Other World Economic Forum Initiatives

“Smart City” At Center Of Power Grid Study, Remote Control Of Electricity, And Other World Economic Forum Initiatives

Image Credit: Imilious / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

The “Smart City” of Chattanooga is the focus of an ongoing study between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and EPB, the publicly owned electric power distribution and telecommunications company that serves approximately 180 thousand homes and businesses in a 600-square mile area in the greater Chattanooga area and Hamilton County.

ORNL – the largest Department of Energy lab in the United States – in partnership with EPB, is studying how the smart power grid in Chattanooga can be used to improve energy efficiency, remotely control electric-powered appliances and devices, and reduce outages.

The ongoing study did not prevent nearly 15 thousand residents in Hamilton County from going without power during the recent arctic blast just before Christmas. With temperatures in the single digits, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) required local power companies, including EPB, to reduce their electric load to shore up TVA’s generation and transmission grid. Customers were notified that there would be periodic outages of 15 minutes, though some reported longer time frames where they were without electricity.

One of only two “smart” cities in the United States that have agreed to adopt new technology as part of the World Economic Forum’s G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance, Chattanooga – through EPB – pioneered the nation’s first citywide “Gigabit” internet service in 2009.

EPB began by building a community-wide fiber optic network with more than 9,000 miles of lines for its 600-square mile service area and then built out the city’s smart grid. That grid now encompasses more than 200 thousand smart devices across the system which includes, among other things, over a thousand IntelliRupter smart switches, a variety of sensors, and smart meters at every location within the service area.

EPB President and CEO David Wade boasts that the utility company has “also installed a number of cutting-edge technologies that we’re testing through our partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratories and other national researchers.”

Last November, the city announced the launch of the first of its kind quantum network. The commercial network is available to private companies, as well as government and university researchers who need a network to run quantum equipment.

In a white paper from September 2021, the World Economic Forum outlines the necessity of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to “accelerate the energy transition” it says is necessary in the future. AI requires quantum computing to process large quantities of data – such as the data being collected through smart city initiatives – and to solve complex problems quickly.

Two years before Chattanooga agreed to become part of the Global Smart Cities Alliance they were already collecting data for their Smart Cities Community Collaborative, a research partnership between the Enterprise Center, CO.LAB, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Erlanger Health System and EPB focusing on transportation, health care and energy.

On Wednesday, Seoul Robotics announced plans to expand a partnership with the Chattanooga Department of Innovation Delivery and Performance, and the Center of Urban Informatics and Progress at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga which will result in the installation of 86 smart city intersections in Chattanooga during 2023 and 2024 – the largest project of its kind in the U.S. The $4.5 million undertaking will be funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation “to create a living laboratory that will provide researchers unparalleled mapping, tracking, and identification insights into the state of mobility in the city.”

Once installed, the city will have the ability to monitor over a 100 intersections, the entire downtown area. 

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.

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11 Responses

  1. Sounds good as do most ideas coming from globalists. But it is not. It is about control. Do you want a stranger or a computer controlling your thermostat at home? You want 72 degrees for you home in the winter and they want 68 and they know better – right? What happens when they say 65 is better or maybe even 60? You might be cold but you won’t freeze to death. It’s all for the betterment of the world and society they say. It is being discussed by the Washington establishment to have controls on all new vehicles that will allow them to be shut down by law enforcement, a government official and of course a hacker. They want to control how fast you drive, how far you drive and they want to know where you go. They will say it is for safety as police can shut down the vehicle driven by a criminal involved in a high speed chase and that would be true but once they have the power you know what happens. These same people said the Patriot Act was about stopping Islamic terrorists and how did that work out?

      1. Anything from the WEF is not good! They want to tell you how to live because they “know better than you.”

    1. This is all about 15 minute cities. They are implementing them in the UK OxfordShire to be exact. You will not leave your quadrant unless you get permission. Everything you need is within a 15 minute WALK or bicycle ride. They will be able to scan their plates to make sure they don’t go where they are not allowed.

      https://theirishsentinel.com/2022/12/04/oxfordshire-county-council-pass-climate-lockdown-trial-to-begin-in-2024/

      TN this past year messed up the license plates, they didn’t have the right coating on them so the cameras we unable to read them. Instead of telling everyone this they instead have announced you will get a free plate (county fee still applies) courtesy of the State on TN.

      https://partyshopmaine.com/tennessee/why-are-the-new-tennessee-license-plates-blue/

      Australia is doing this also.
      https://zeeemedia.com/interview/australias-smart-cities-revealed-a-roadmap-for-the-whole-world/

      Lastly as far as I know there’s the line city in Saudi Arabia. To meet population goal by 2030.
      https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/construction/the-line-saudi

      Chattanooga better stop this madness before it’s to far gone!!

    2. Agree 1,000% & the same thing with CBDC people think it’ll be so great IT WON’T it IS the same social credit scoring system China uses to control its citizens. When are people going to wake up!!

  2. As said before just more overreach to control everything in our daily lives. AMERICA do not fall for this B.S socialism.

  3. If “CITIZENS” refuse to use their “Supreme Authority” over government, there will be no end to their authority.

    And you can kiss your Country, your Freedoms, and most likely “YOUR BUTT” if you refuse to “CO-OPERATE” (OBEY) them.

    1. ” you can kiss your Country, your Freedoms, and most likely “YOUR BUTT”… “GOODBY”.

  4. Every single candidate for Mayor, City Council, County Commission or Alderman needs to be asked in any public or candidate forum, “What is your position on WEF’s G20 Global Smart City initiative?” If the candidate supports–or claims to have no idea what that is–do ALL you can to help defeat him/her!

    Those supporting the initiatives are already contemptuous of our freedoms; and those who have no idea are just gullible enough to be swayed or bribed into supporting it. WEF supporters have put together all kinds of cutesy, feel-good videos about how great these data-miner “conveniences” are–however, they will actually become the chains that bind us through our smart phones. They support one-world government control–and make no mistake, THAT is the ultimate goal!

    Tennessee is already very much in their sights–beyond Chattanooga, the bluest metro areas of the state, Nashville, Memphis & Knoxville, are already confirmed on the G20 list. They get grant monies to install this stuff–with regulations on “how” it must be used as a condition of the grants. In other words, they are selling YOUR privacy and YOUR freedoms for grants designed to push technology to control all of us. And they will stand before you with a straight face and say, “See how we were able to provide you these services without raising your taxes?”

    You can see which G20-supporting Mayors and regions have already committed their citizenry to here: https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/our-cities/

    Push back. Fight back. Follow Nancy Reagan’s advice.

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