PG&E has launched a virtual power plant program called SHARE with Google and Rewiring America. The utility will recruit more than 20,000 customers with Sunrun or Tesla solar-charged batteries or Renew Home smart thermostats, and those customers will let PG&E control the devices to help the grid. Google is paying for the first phase, about $14 million, so the cost will not fall on PG&E ratepayers.
The program comes as Google plans a 250 MW "cloud research and testing facility" in San Jose. Google and PG&E both insist SHARE has nothing to do with offsetting data center costs, and Google says the facility is not a data center. The two companies are already tussling with the Sierra Club and The Utility Reform Network over how to allocate the cost of connecting that large load to the transmission grid.
Critics are not convinced. Jigar Shah, the clean energy investor and former DOE loan office head, called SHARE "not a success story" but "an indictment." He said PG&E has gigawatt-hours' worth of behind-the-meter batteries in its territory, but none have a standard way to help neighbors make the grid more efficient. The article also notes PG&E has a history of launching VPP pilots and then canceling them, while utilities in Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Utah, and Vermont have built VPP networks from smaller bases.
Separately, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed bills that would require data centers of at least 25 MW to pay a "reasonable share" of the grid upgrades and additional generation they trigger. Whether SHARE becomes more than another one-off experiment, the article says, remains to be seen.