The companies have made a commitment to work together to establish standards for scaling up the use of VPPs - systems for easing the load on electricity grids when supply is short.
The initiative, known as the ‘Virtual Power Plant Partnership’ (VP3), will be hosted by energy transition nonprofit the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) with a view to helping advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonisation and increase the resiliency of the energy grid.
The firms involved in VP3 include Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker.
"Virtual power plants will enable grid planners and grid operators to (better manage) growing electricity demand from vehicles, from buildings and from industry, and make sure that the grid can stay reliable even in the face of ongoing extreme weather challenges and aging physical infrastructure," said Mark Dyson, managing director at RMI.
Virtual...