Google이 고객 태양광 및 배터리 자산을 활용한 가상 발전소를 구축하기 위해 PG&E(Pacific Gas & Electric)와 함께 분산형 에너지 프로그램에 자금을 지원하고 있습니다.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is partnering with Google, Rewiring America and others to enroll tens of thousands of existing and new distributed energy assets in two Northern California counties into SHARE, a virtual power plant operated by PG&E and Demand Side Analytics. Announced Sept. 3, the "proof-of-concept" VPP aims to create additional capacity, boost reliability and "help put downward pressure on rates" while reducing participating households' net electricity bills.

The program tests a proposition from Rewiring America: that hyperscalers like Google can substantially offset near-term power demand from AI compute—at lower cost than building new gas-fired generation—by subsidizing distributed energy resource deployments at scale.

Tesla, Sunrun and Renew Home will begin enrolling nearly 21,000 existing residential flexible energy devices this fall. Tesla and Sunrun, among the nation's largest residential battery providers, and Renew Home, which operates 4 GW and counting of controllable load across millions of smart thermostats, collectively unlock nearly 17 GW of flexible capacity nationwide. California accounts for 4.7 GW of that, split roughly 75/25 between batteries and thermostats, with existing resources expected to support the grid through SHARE by year's end.

SHARE employs a "location-based approach … designed to inform future solutions for transmission constraints, local capacity challenges and rising demand across the electric system," PG&E said. Carrier will support new deployments, beginning with variable-speed residential heat pumps featuring up to 10 kWh of integrated battery capacity. Carrier tested these devices' load-shifting capabilities in a 2025 pilot with the Electric Power Research Institute.

Hakan Yilmaz, president of Carrier Energy and the parent company's chief sustainability officer, said SHARE would demonstrate "how [Carrier] can help deliver distributed capacity with the firmness to scale as a fast and reliable grid resource." Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of energy and power, added that the program would show how today's electricity grid can meet rising demand "without burdening ratepayers," while "unlock[ing] the potential of local distributed energy resources to strengthen grid capacity and resiliency."

Google will fully fund SHARE through 2027, with initial findings shared publicly by early 2027. The proof-of-concept could eventually expand to include commercial, industrial and utility-scale assets.