Thanks to some bold moves by sonnen, the idea of using residential storage batteries to create a virtual power plant is taking hold in Utah.

The Wattsmart program is now being offered to utility customers in Idaho and will soon be available to PacifiCorp customers in California, Oregon, and Washington, according to spokesperson (we swear we are not making this up) Brandon Zero. “Rocky Mountain Power’s vision for the program is that all solar customers will also install a battery. Our goal is to have thousands of customers and hundreds of megawatts enrolled in Wattsmart,” he said.