Google will pay people to use less electricity so its data centers can use more

Google has partnered with energy supplier Voltus to create a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant that will incentivize people and businesses to temporarily reduce electricity consumption during peak demand periods, freeing up power for Google's data centers. The virtual power plant achieves this through battery storage and load-shedding—offering payments to companies and customers to shift their energy use to off-peak times by adjusting thermostats and pausing industrial processes. This deal addresses electricity supply strain in the PJM grid region (serving 67 million people across 13 states) caused by massive data center demand from Google and other hyperscalers.