World’s largest residential virtual power plant coming from Alphabet

Jul 09, 2023

In the future, many ‘virtual power plants’ could easily be ‘assembled’ from fleets of EVs (car/truck rentals, city utility vehicles, school buses, personnel vehicles, etc.) connected TO the grid. Add in homeowner house batteries, along with FCVs ( trucks, buses, cargo ships, locomotives, etc. ) and your talking many Gigawatt hours of widely distributed power. Software could be utilized to limit the amount of battery drain and H2 (FCVs) used. Thus, owners could maximize OR minimize the amount of power provided— depending upon the EVs/FCVs and battery’s planned future use. Utility companies could compensate members of these ‘collectives’ by offering reduced rates or free charging (during off-peak hours). A win-win for everyone—and a more modular/versatile grid.