Google’s Nest Renew & OhmConnect To Form Virtual Power Plant In US

Google's Nest Renew & OhmConnect To Form Virtual Power Plant In US

Renew Home, North America’s residential virtual power plant (VPP), has launched out of the combination of Google Nest Renew service and OhmConnect in the US. The company has received a $100M investment from majority owner Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP).

According to a statement released by Google Renew Home, the company says “It will transform residential energy by enabling millions of homes across the country to collectively reduce and shift their energy use.” Further, it added that it aims to reduce the home energy costs.

Renew already controls nearly 3GW of electrical energy use, and is planning to expand to 50GW by 2030 – approximately 25% of the total VPP growth recently projected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE projects that by tripling the scale of VPPs, we could meet 10-20% of peak electricity demand by 2030 – which would avoid $10 billion in grid costs.

“The marriage of Nest’s innovative approach to managing energy use in the home with OhmConnect customer-focused grid services platform will be transformational,” said Renew Home CEO Ben Brown. “With our industry-leading partners, Renew Home will be able to coordinate the home energy use of millions of customers to help catapult us into a 100% clean energy future.”

Renew Home is already working with the Google Home APIs as a platform provider of integrations to control devices and energy use in millions of homes. Renew Home also integrates with dozens of additional devices and appliances in the home – including LG, Honeywell, SunPower, Sense, and others – and will support demand response and VPP programs with more than 100 utilities.

On deal with OhmConnect, “This is a pivotal moment for virtual power plants,” said Alan Machuga, CTO of Rheem. He also added, “We are excited to partner with Renew Home to help customers save money and energy – while supporting the grid. As a leading manufacturer of HVAC and Water Heating products, Rheem uniquely brings both potential for energy savings and energy storage, to which water heaters play a critical role.”

According to the DOE, VPPs are aggregations of distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar with behind-the-meter batteries, electric vehicles and chargers, electric water heaters, smart buildings, and their controls, and flexible commercial and industrial loads that can balance electricity demand and supply and provide utility-scale and utility-grade grid services like a traditional power plant.