Google, Tesla, and data center developer Verrus are among a group of companies arguing that the electrical grid is being underutilized and they want everyone — especially politicians — to know about it.

The three companies along with HVAC giant Carrier, virtual power plant company Renew Home, distributed energy resource developer Sparkfund, and smart electrical panel startup Span founded a new group called Utilize to get that message across. The group, which launched Tuesday , is advocating to change the way the grid is built and used. The group points out, correctly, that the grid is designed for brief bursts of high demand; most of the time there’s lots of capacity that goes unused.

Utilize thinks that should change. The group argues that smarter ways to use that capacity already exist. Utilize name-checks a number of those solutions, including battery storage, demand response, and virtual power plants, all of which have emerged en masse over the last decade, but remain under utilized.…