Google Pays PJM Customers to Use Less Power So It Can Use More

Last Thursday, Google announced it will pay a San Francisco company called Voltus to round up as much as 1,070 megawatts (MW) of electricity "capacity" on the PJM Interconnection grid, the 13-state (plus D.C.) grid that includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Google, Voltus, and nearly every news outlet covering the story call it a "virtual power plant." Pardon us, but there is no such thing. No turbine spins. No Marcellus gas burns. What Google is actually doing is paying homes and businesses to use less electricity when the grid gets tight, so that Google's power-hungry data centers can use more. Let's call it what it is and quit with the euphemisms.

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