DANA GUERNSEY
SUSTAINABILITY
it is currently straining under the weight of increased electrification and digitalisation. In an effort to ease the burden on the grid and unlock more energy, Google has signed a three-year agreement with Voltus in what the latter calls a‘ Bring Your Own Capacity’( BYOC) arrangement.
According to Olivia Wang, a Research Analyst at Sightline Climate, BYOC is“ a way to allow data centres to leverage existing flexibility on the grid to meet their power needs faster”.
She adds:“ Rather than waiting years for new generation, transmission or substation upgrades, BYOC allows data centres to source accredited capacity from a virtual power plant composed of flexible loads that already exist on the system.”
Essentially, Google is paying to aggregate what already exists in local communities. It is the extra power that comes from domestic back-up batteries, smart thermostats and other controllable loads. When orchestrated at scale, though, these energy sources can replicate the output of a conventional power asset.
Google and Voltus believe their deal will unlock around 100MW of additional energy, which could help facilitate the former’ s data centre drive.
What is a virtual power plant? Voltus’ BYOC offering makes use of what is known in the energy sector as a“ virtual power plant”, which is a network of small-scale energy resources that together can function similarly
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Voltus Co-Founder and CEO Dana Guernsey
DANA GUERNSEY
TITLE: CEO COMPANY: VOLTUS INDUSTRY: ENERGY
LOCATION: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, US
Dana has 20 years of experience in the energy sector and 10 with Voltus, where she has helped to bring virtual power plant technology into the American mainstream.
to a power plant. They are connected by IoT and controlled by an advanced piece of software.
This connectedness means that, when demand for electricity spikes, these systems are able to automatically orchestrate thousands of devices at the same moment. This can manifest as discharging local batteries or slightly adjusting smart thermostats.
The individual adjustments are imperceptible to end users, but their combined effect frees up meaningful capacity at the grid level.
96 September 2026