Google signed a deal with Voltus, a distributed energy resource platform, to build a 1 gigawatt virtual power plant to provide extra capacity for the surging electricity needs of data centers.

As Google and other companies construct more data centers to keep up with the AI revolution, more strain has been put on the power grid. One way to deal with this issue is to pay consumers to cut back on electricity usage during peak hours, savings that, when coordinated, save a power plant’s worth of electricity. Google expanded this effort on Thursday, signing a deal with Voltus to extend its previous flexible power capacity deal for PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest regional transmission organization.

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