Tesla, residential clean energy provider Sunrun and Google-backed home energy management company Renew Home announced a new partnership to aggregate millions of home energy devices to form the largest distributed power plant in the U.S., capable of delivering more than 16 GW of flexible energy capacity to hyperscalers and utilities.
The framework is aimed at helping hyperscalers secure electricity for data centers while reducing costs for residential customers by shifting energy demand during periods of peak consumption, the companies said.
Mary Powell, Sunrun CEO, said:
“When data centers are asked to throttle down operations during the most expensive and stressful hours of the day, we can activate our distributed power plants to help provide them the power they need while also protecting American families from footing the bill for costly new infrastructure.”
According to the companies, the new initiative combines hundreds of thousands of home battery systems operated by Tesla and Sunrun with more than 8 million smart thermostats and connected devices managed by Renew Home, delivering power to the grid from home batteries paired with solar generation while simultaneously shifting household load during peak demand hours. The platform will span multiple states and will not require additional hardware, software, interconnection, water, or land usage.
Highlighting the ability to rapidly roll out the service, the companies said that the new capacity-as-a-solution framework can be deployed in months by creating additional headroom on the existing electricity grid. The solution is designed to free up transmission capacity, ease congestion on distribution infrastructure, and expand available grid capacity, while enabling households to lower electricity bills, earn rewards, and maintain power during outages.
According to the companies, more than 300 MW in capacity is available for immediate deployment in Virginia, with a target of at least 500 MW by 2030. The companies added that they are capable of deploying multiple gigawatts of additional capacity across the country and encouraged hyperscalers to engage early, as available capacity will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
The companies said that they have also committed to capacity to PJM’s proposed Reliability Backstop Process, which could immediately unlock more than 1 GW of capacity, with additional capacity deployable in the years ahead for peak shaving, locational grid relief, and ancillary services.
Colby Hastings, Senior Director of Residential Energy at Tesla, said:
“America’s grid faces mounting pressure from data centers, electrification, and manufacturing growth that no single infrastructure solution can solve fast enough. Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla believe that a huge piece of the answer is already in place — in the batteries, thermostats, and electric vehicles inside millions of American homes, waiting to be put to work.”
