Yesterday, Google broke the news of a VPP deal with operator Voltus. The network is set to launch next year, targeting up to 100 MW of resources annually. How it works: The tech giant will pay Voltus to aggregate DERs from PJM homes and businesses, and send that power to its data centers. Voltus then compensates participating PJM customers…who are certainly in need of relief. 

Zooming out: This is the first hyperscaler-funded VPP, the companies claim—but more are likely to follow. Google is the first (announced) customer for Voltus’s “bring your own capacity” program, which aims to help data centers quickly secure watts over the next few years (as projects sit in interconnection queues and developers put power equipment on back order).

The signal: This deal “creates a new pathway for bringing capacity online quickly,” Ryan Hledik, principal at the Brattle Group, told Energy Central over email. “When Google and Voltus prove this works, it will be a model for others to follow.” 

What about utilities’ VPPs? If the trend catches on, the parallel operations of utility-led and hyperscaler-funded programs could “create some complexity,” Hledik said. “But that complexity has existed for decades and has not prevented the demand-response industry from moving forward.” Beginning in the early aughts, he noted, US aggregators scaled up DR in wholesale markets—without edging out utility programs.

Onshore: Renewable power groups are suing the Trump administration for its stalled onshore wind reviews (which have blocked around 160 projects). The groups, including Renewable Northwest and Advanced Power Alliance, call the delays “a total halt of all wind project development in the United States.” 

Offshore: Separately, seven Democrat-controlled states are suing several federal agencies over the nearly $1B deal with TotalEnergies to drop wind projects off the NY and NC coasts.

Duke is willing to build more nuclear to satisfy rising data center demand—if developers can saddle some of the (notorious) financial risk. 

Meanwhile, the New York Power Authority has issued a “request for qualifications” for SMR and large-scale reactor developers. Companies need to show they can kick off construction before 2033 (in order to receive IRA tax credits). 

As of June 1, customers at all PA PUC-regulated electric utilities will pay more on their monthly bills—a result of updated generation prices. These price spikes range from 0.05% to nearly 20%, and they arrive after PJM’s wholesale power costs jumped by nearly 76% in Q1.

Yes, but: Total monthly costs “will also depend heavily on summer temperatures and individual energy usage,” the Commission explained. 

The reason? Delays on over 6 GW of clean capacity expected to come online over that period. This lands on an existing 53-GW backlog. Project developers cited 1) permitting issues 2) lengthy interconnection queues and 3) unpredictable equipment costs.

It’s all thanks to Urenco, which is expanding the country’s only enrichment facility for nuclear power plants (located in New Mexico). It’s perfect timing: The US ban on enriched uranium imports from Russia is slated to take full effect in 2028.