PG&E Corp. (PCG, Financials) has teamed up with some of the greatest brands in technology and residential energy to create a virtual power plant around the Bay Area. The utility said the experiment will connect more than 20,000 smart home gadgets with cooperation from Alphabet’s Google, Tesla, Sunrun and Carrier.

The concept is to convert domestic energy equipment into a flexible resource for the grid. It can coordinate batteries, heat pumps and other linked devices to move energy use away from peak times, rather than relying solely on traditional power stations.

PG&E will manage the project planning, analysis and validation. The program might help participating homes save money and also improve affordability and dependability across the grid, Sunrun claimed.

Carrier is the launch partner for the new equipment deployments and will deliver battery-enabled heat pumps that can store and shift energy use automatically. For investors, the bigger news is the rising value of distributed energy.

As demand for power grows utilities are seeking for ways to boost capacity without a heavy reliance on costly new generating and transmission equipment. The experiment will investigate if thousands of customer-owned devices can act as one coordinated power plant.

The next challenge is, can PG&E establish the concept is good enough to take beyond the initial Bay Area rollout.