Google Expands Its PJM Virtual Power Plant Tenfold to Over 1 GW

Google will expand its virtual power plant (VPP) agreement with demand-response company Voltus from 100 megawatts to roughly 1,170 megawatts in the PJM Interconnection, Utility Dive reported on October 22, citing the companies — a tenfold increase that comes as PJM grapples with surging electricity demand from data centers.

From a 100 MW Pilot to Over 1 GW

The expansion builds on a three-year “Bring Your Own Capacity” agreement the two companies signed in June 2026, under which Google funds a Voltus-run VPP that aggregates batteries, smart thermostats, on-site generation and industrial load adjustments from homes and businesses across PJM’s 13-state footprint. Voltus then offers that combined capacity into PJM’s markets when the grid is under strain, paying participating customers for their flexibility.

“Expanding our initial commitment tenfold demonstrates our core effort,” Ellen Zuckerman, Google’s head of energy market development for North and South America, told Utility Dive. Voltus expects to ramp the expanded capacity up over three to four years and run the arrangement under contract with Google through 2040.

Why PJM, and Why Now

PJM, which serves roughly 65 million customers from Illinois to North Carolina, has become ground zero for the collision between data center growth and grid capacity. Goldman Sachs has projected US data center power demand will keep growing 38% a year, even as Wood Mackenzie warns that most of the capacity requested from utilities will never get built. PJM set a fresh summer peak-load record in 2026, alongside ERCOT and SPP, intensifying pressure on grid operators to find flexible capacity rather than waiting years for new power plants and transmission lines.

Demand-response revenue inside PJM reflects that pressure: it rose roughly 240% between 2024 and 2025, to about $523.5 million, with emergency demand response accounting for 88% of that total, according to the PJM market monitor cited by Utility Dive. Voltus says participating customers can earn up to $350,000 per megawatt-year through the programme.

A Workaround for a Rejected Capacity Plan

The Google-Voltus expansion also lands just after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission largely rejected PJM’s own “bring your own new capacity” proposal earlier in October 2026, a plan that would have let large electricity users fund new generation directly to speed up interconnection. With that regulatory path narrowed, demand-side arrangements like the Google-Voltus deal — which reduce net demand rather than add new supply — have become one of the few quick levers data center operators and their utility partners can still pull.

Voltus, which says it has about 8.5 GW of distributed energy assets under contract across North America and is targeting 20 GW by the end of the decade, is not the only company chasing this market: Budderfly and Schneider Electric have announced a 150 MW, $500 million VPP programme, while Sunrun, Renew Home and Tesla have a smaller 16 MW arrangement. Google has separately said it is working to unlock around 1 GW of demand-response capacity by making its own data center load more flexible, an effort distinct from the Voltus contract.

Sources

• Utility Dive, “Google supersizes PJM virtual power plant to more than 1 GW,” October 22, 2026 — deal size, timeline, Zuckerman quote and PJM market data.
• Voltus, “Bring Your Own Capacity” agreement announcement, June 2, 2026 — original 100 MW deal terms.

Illustrative image. Photo: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source