Google bankrolls PG&E virtual power plant

Google is funding a new program with Pacific Gas & Electric that pays homeowners' home batteries and smart thermostats to help support the electric grid. Called SHARE, the program will run in two Northern California counties and aims to enroll nearly 21,000 existing home batteries and smart thermostats this fall, working through companies like Tesla, Sunrun and Renew Home. It's built as a "virtual power plant" — a network of small home devices that, combined, act like a power plant by adding capacity when the grid needs it.

For homeowners already using these systems, PG&E says participating could lower net electricity bills while adding reliability to the local grid. Carrier, the HVAC maker, is also involved and plans to bring in newer devices: heat pumps (electric heating and cooling systems) with built-in battery storage of up to 10 kWh, which could eventually join the program as new resources.

Google is paying for the whole thing and will run it through 2027, with early results expected late this year or in early 2027. PG&E says the idea is to prove that private companies, rather than ratepayers, can fund distributed energy resources at scale — partly to handle rising electricity demand from data centers and AI computing without raising rates or building new gas plants. If it works, the program could grow to include larger commercial and industrial equipment too. For now, it's limited to specific PG&E territory in Northern California, so homeowners elsewhere would want to check what similar programs, if any, exist through their own utility.