Overview
- The utility announced the SHARE pilot on Thursday, connecting PG&E with Rewiring America, Google, Carrier, Tesla, Sunrun, Renew Home, Demand Side Analytics and encoord to build a location-based virtual power plant.
- PG&E plans to enroll nearly 21,000 existing home devices from Tesla, Sunrun and Renew Home and deploy new Carrier battery-enabled heat pumps for eligible households in Santa Clara and Alameda counties.
- Partners set a proof-of-concept schedule that begins outreach in fall 2026, aims to run through 2027, and targets roughly 12 megawatts of aggregated capacity by 2028 as the effort scales.
- Google will fully fund program incentives, equipment and delivery while Rewiring America manages signups, PG&E operates dispatch on its DERMS platform, Demand Side Analytics handles orchestration and encoord provides grid modeling.
- Officials say the pilot will test whether aggregating residential batteries and smart devices can shift peak demand, lower customer bills and defer grid upgrades, with initial findings expected in late 2026 or early 2027.