Google Expands Voltus Deal to 1-GW Virtual Power Plant in PJM
- Google and Voltus said Oct. 22 they will build a 1-GW virtual power plant in PJM, adding 1,070 MW to June's 100 MW.
- PJM's latest capacity auction cleared at its $325 per MW-day cap and fell 6,831 MW short of the grid operator's reliability requirement.
- Neither company disclosed the contract value or a timeline; PJM's next capacity auction is scheduled for December.
Google expanded its agreement with Voltus Inc. to build a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant in the PJM Interconnection grid, the companies said Oct. 22. The new agreement adds 1,070 MW to a three-year deal for up to 100 MW signed in June.
Voltus will enroll businesses and homes and pool their flexible equipment into a plant that Google pays for. When the grid is strained, Voltus signals those sites to cut consumption with batteries, smart thermostats or industrial process changes. Participants get bill savings and direct payments. The cuts are temporary and come during peak demand, Google said in a blog post.
Neither company disclosed the contract's value or timeline, and neither announcement mentions solar. In August, Sunrun agreed to supply Voltus's hyperscaler programs from part of its home solar-plus-storage systems in PJM and MISO.
PJM serves more than 67 million people in 13 states and Washington, D.C. Its 2028/2029 capacity auction cleared at the price cap in July and fell short of the grid operator's reliability requirement, PJM said.
The deal in numbers
- 1,070 MW of new capacity, on top of the 100 MW agreed in June.
- 10.7 times the June volume: the new tranche alone (list.solar calculation). Google calls it a 10-fold expansion.
- $325 per MW-day, the cap at which PJM's 2028/2029 auction cleared, 2.5% below the prior auction.
- 6,831 MW short of PJM's reliability requirement in that auction.
- 5% of capacity cleared or committed in that auction was demand response.
- $225 million raised by Voltus in a Series D round announced Oct. 8.
PJM called on demand response on Oct. 13 and 14, as unusually warm weather met planned maintenance outages. It needed the cuts for the afternoon peak and the evening hours after solar output falls to zero, the grid operator said.
"Expanding our initial commitment tenfold demonstrates our core effort to actively bring our own capacity to the grids that serve us," said Ellen Zuckerman, Google's head of energy market development for North and South America.
Voltus expects its platform to reach 20 GW by 2030 as it expands Bring Your Own Capacity in PJM and MISO. PJM's next capacity auction, for 2029/2030, is scheduled for December.