Thousands of California Homes Envisioned as Virtual Power Plant

An Alphabet company will spend $100 million to create a virtual power plant in California that will connect appliances in hundreds of thousands homes to the electric grid.

The hope is that providing reliable, clean power can help the state avoid the kind of rolling blackouts triggered by a summer heat wave earlier this year, according to Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, which invests in novel technologies to improve infrastructure and counts Alphabet Inc. among its backers.

The group said the money will create a 550 megawatt power ...