Google Signs 100-MW Virtual Power Plant Deal with Voltus
Virtual power plant platform developer Voltus has signed Google to a 100-MW three-year VPP agreement in which the tech giant will help pay for using decentralized power to aid the larger grid in a region dense with data centers.
Calling this VPP deal a “first of its kind,” Voltus will aggregate 100 MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) from local business homes in the PJM Interconnection grid system. Google will fund the VPP work to utilize DER energy onto the grid to aid in demand response and other grid services.
These DERs can include solar, battery storage, smart thermostats and generators, among flexible, distributed energy assets. VPPs use advanced software and communication technologies to manage and coordinate tens, hundreds or even thousands of DERs into a single, dispatchable energy resource which can help reduce load or deliver capacity during grid stresses.
Voltus will pay the customers who allow their DERs to participate in the VPP aggregation, which can offset Google’s own capacity demand from data centers and artificial intelligence computing. This “Bring Your Own Capacity (BYOC) program is part of a three-year agreement funded by Google.
“This initial phase of our Google partnership is pioneering a model that large load customers can follow, and we expect it to accelerate the role of distributed energy resources as a capacity solution at scale,” Dana Guernsey, CEO of Voltus, said in a statement.
Google does not disclose its cloud-based and data capacity numbers, but the search engine and digital infrastructure giant controls gigawatts of projects across the U.S. The PJM territory also includes northern Virginia, where the data center concentration is highest in the nation.
To deal with rising AI and supercomputing demand, Google is investing in smart grid and demand-side technologies to make energy use more efficient and offset its own consumption. The company, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., also is working to secure its own decentralized and perhaps even behind-the-meter projects to supply future AI demand.
“Google is committed to ensuring that our energy growth translates into a more reliable, affordable electricity future for local communities,” said Michael Terrell, Global Head of Advanced Energy at Google. “We are excited to add this new solution to a growing toolkit that can accelerate a robust, flexible energy system, and to partner with Voltus to scale a first-of-its-kind model for unlocking capacity to meet new data center growth.”
Last year, Google committed to spending about $25 billion on data centers and AI infrastructure in the PJM grid over the next two years. PJM operates the grid system covering 13 states across the mid-Atlantic, midwest and southern U.S.
Voltus manages 8.1 GW of DER capacity and paid out about $250 million to participating customers last year, according to the company.
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About the Author
Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
I’ve spent the last 18 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.
I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 36-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.
Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.