Google and Voltus added 1,070 MW of flexible PJM capacity - a workplace battery can join the pool, and the contract prints no payment rate
On 22 October 2026 Voltus and Google said they are adding 1,070 MW to a June agreement for 100 MW of flexible capacity in PJM. The release calls the plant 1 GW. Sites can answer a signal with a battery, a thermostat or a change in an industrial process. Bill savings and direct payments are named. No rate is printed.
A business in PJM with a battery, or with a line it can turn down, is the kind of site this contract is built to call. The release names the size of the pool. It does not name the fee.
On 22 October 2026 Voltus and Google announced an expanded agreement. The region is PJM. Voltus says PJM serves 67 million customers across 13 states and the District of Columbia. Google's note the same day says 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. Same footprint. Two wordings. This note does not merge them into one phrase.
The June 2026 agreement was 100 megawatts. This announcement adds 1,070 megawatts. The Voltus release also calls the plant 1 gigawatt. Google's note calls the expansion 10-fold and calls the plant 1 gigawatt. Ten times 100 is 1,000. 100 plus 1,070 is 1,170, by our arithmetic. The release does not print a combined total. 1,170 is not a line in the release. 1,000 is not a line in the release either.
What a site does. When the grid is under strain, Voltus signals the sites. The release says those sites can use batteries, smart thermostats, industrial process adjustments and other flexible assets to reduce energy use. Google's note lists smart thermostats, batteries and industrial assets, and says the assets temporarily reduce energy use during peak demand. A thermostat is on the list. A thermostat is not a battery. The release does not say the 1,070 megawatts are all batteries, and it does not say the batteries are already built.
What a site is paid. Voltus says participating customers get bill savings and direct payments. Google's note says bill savings and cash payments. Neither page prints a cents figure, a dollars-per-kilowatt figure, or the share of the 1,070 megawatts that is storage.
A figure that is easy to paste onto the wrong line. The Voltus release points to a Brattle Group report that predicts U.S. consumers could save more than $100 billion over the next decade through better grid use. That prediction is not a payment in this contract. It is not a cheque to one factory.
Ellen Zuckerman, head of energy market development for North and South America at Google, said procuring this capacity through a gigawatt-scale virtual power plant "ensures Google's operations in PJM support regional reliability and deliver direct economic benefits to local communities." She also called the expansion a tenfold increase on the initial commitment. Dana Guernsey, chief executive of Voltus, said the expansion "translates data center growth into direct economic benefits for businesses and homes." Economic benefits, in those sentences, are not a printed rate.
The term, from two interviews the same day, not from the release. Latitude Media reported that Guernsey said Google signed a contract that extends through 2040, and that it will offset load from multiple data centres in PJM. She said the 100 megawatt plant Voltus developed for Google over the summer has already been fulfilled and was "over-subscribed." Utility Dive reported that Sarah Spitz, a Voltus spokesperson, said in an email that Voltus expects to ramp to the full capacity over three to four years and then run it under a contract with Google through 2040. The 2040 date is in both accounts. The three-to-four-year ramp is Spitz's email. It is not a date in the release.
How much of it is a workplace battery. Latitude reported that Guernsey declined to specify the battery share and called it "a chunk." She said most of those batteries will be commercial-scale. Her words: "We really believe in the behind-the-meter C&I battery market in particular." Behind the meter means on the customer's side of the billing meter. C&I means commercial and industrial. She said the longer contract is there so those commercial batteries are not left on merchant risk. Merchant risk means the price is whatever the market prints that day. A belief and a "chunk" are not a megawatt total.
This is not the earlier Google battery pilot. That note covered a separate three-month trial that moved solar-charged electricity through another company's batteries. This contract is Voltus, it is capacity in PJM, and the payment rate is blank.
Analogy: Google is booking a crowd of small switches, some of them batteries, to stand in when PJM is tight. The booking names the size of the crowd. It does not name the fee each switch is paid.
Good: A public date, a public 100 megawatt starting point, a public 1,070 megawatt addition, a public list of what a site can do, and two same-day accounts of a contract through 2040.
Bad: No payment rate. No battery share. The release's 1 gigawatt, the 1,070 megawatt addition and the June 100 megawatts are not reconciled on the page. The three-to-four-year ramp is an email to a reporter, not a line in the release.
Ugly: Reading the Brattle figure of more than $100 billion as this site's cheque. Reading the whole 1,070 megawatts as batteries already installed. Treating a thermostat as a battery. Adding 100 and 1,070 and calling the sum a number Voltus printed.
Soft next step: if a PJM offer says a battery earns Google's capacity payment, the rate is not on this release. A short consult at Sovryn Energy /consult if you want the offer read against the contract.
Source: Voltus, 22 Oct 2026 - 1 GW bring-your-own-capacity agreement with Google in PJM. Primary for the 22 October date, the June 2026 agreement of 100 MW, the additional 1,070 MW, the description of the plant as 1 GW, PJM serving 67 million customers across 13 states and the District of Columbia, aggregation of new capacity from local businesses and homes, the signal when the grid is under strain, the asset list (batteries, smart thermostats, industrial process adjustments and other flexible assets), bill savings and direct payments with no rate printed, the Brattle Group prediction of more than $100 billion in U.S. consumer savings over the next decade from better grid use, Ellen Zuckerman's line on a gigawatt-scale virtual power plant and direct economic benefits to local communities, her description of the expansion as tenfold, and Dana Guernsey's line that the expansion translates data center growth into direct economic benefits for businesses and homes. The release does not print a combined 1,170 MW, a payment rate, a battery share, a 2040 end date, or a construction status. 100 plus 1,070, and 10 times 100, are our arithmetic. Google blog, 22 Oct 2026 - a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant with Voltus. Primary for Google's wording of 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C., the asset list of smart thermostats, batteries and industrial assets, a temporary reduction in energy use during peak demand, bill savings and cash payments, a 100-megawatt agreement from earlier in the year, and the "10-fold" label. Latitude Media, 22 Oct 2026 - Google is purchasing a gigawatt of distributed capacity in PJM. Primary for Guernsey's confirmation that the contract extends through 2040, that it offsets load from multiple data centres in PJM, that the 100 MW plant developed over the summer was fulfilled and "over-subscribed," that she declined a battery percentage and called the share "a chunk," that most of those batteries will be commercial-scale, her line on the behind-the-meter commercial and industrial battery market, and her point that the longer contract means those batteries are not left on merchant risk. Utility Dive, 22 Oct 2026 - Google supersizes the PJM virtual power plant. Primary for Sarah Spitz, a Voltus spokesperson, saying by email that Voltus expects to ramp to full capacity over three to four years and then run the plant under a contract with Google through 2040. That ramp is not in the Voltus release.