Google adds 1,070 MW to Voltus virtual power plant in PJM

Google has added 1,070 MW to the virtual power plant it contracted with Voltus in PJM Interconnection, expanding a June agreement that began at 100 MW, the companies said Thursday. The combined 1,170 MW will be aggregated from distributed assets held by third parties and offered into the grid operator's markets when supply tightens.

Under the agreement, Google pays Voltus to assemble flexible capacity held by residential, commercial and industrial customers, including batteries, smart thermostats, on-site generation and industrial process adjustments. Voltus then offers the combined resource into PJM when the grid is strained. Sarah Spitz, a spokesperson for the San Francisco-based demand response company, told Utility Dive that Voltus expects to reach full capacity over three to four years and to run the plant under the Google contract through 2040. A contract value was not disclosed.

Dana Guernsey, Voltus's chief executive, has compared such contracts to the power purchase agreements that unlocked financing for utility-scale wind and solar, in earlier comments to Utility Dive.

Demand response revenue in PJM rose 240% from 2024 to 2025, to $523.5 million, according to Monitoring Analytics, the grid operator's market monitor, in its annual market report released in March. Higher capacity prices and increases in capacity market revenue accounted for most of the increase, the monitor said, and emergency demand response made up 88% of the total.

PJM runs the grid in 13 states and the District of Columbia, and Utility Dive describes it as the largest U.S. wholesale power market. The operator has recently fallen short of its reliability margins despite soaring capacity auction prices, largely because of rising demand from data centers.

Voltus says energy users in PJM can earn up to $350,000 per MW-year through demand response-related payments. A Brattle Group report released this month found that virtual power plants can put downward pressure on electric rates by reducing peak demand, on top of the direct payments participants receive.

Voltus has about 8.5 GW of distributed assets under contract across North America and aims to reach 20 GW by the end of the decade, partly through a Bring Your Own Capacity initiative it described earlier this month, after raising $225 million in its latest funding round. At full ramp, the Google plant would equal roughly 14% of the current contracted book.