About The Green Grid:

Officers

• The Technical Committee has two elected positions. These are currently held by:
  • Chair: Harry Handlin, GE Digital Energy
  • Vice-Chair: TBD

Charter

• Objectives
  • The objectives of the Technical Committee are:
    • Coordinating and accelerating technical discussion in and among the Technical Committee Work Groups
    • Submitting technical proposals to the Board of Directors; and,
    • Respond to technical requests from the Board; and
    • Define meaningful, user-centric models, metrics and protocols;
    • Develop standards, measurement methods, processes and new technologies to improve performance against the defined metrics; and
    • Define the technical strategy for The Green Grid; implement technical strategy as approved by the Board
    • Support public statements made on behalf of The Green Grid with technical content
    • To the extent that the Technical Committee is duly authorized by the Board, create The Green Grid technical work groups and mechanisms for members to participate in Working Groups
    • To the extent that the Technical Committee is duly authorized by the Board, act as technical liaison to appropriate external organizations (e.g. ASHRAE, DoE, etc…)
    • Working with The Green Grid member companies, collect and analyze useful data on data center characteristics and performance
    • Keep The Green Grid members informed on ongoing technical developments and other appropriate matters;
• Activities
  • For achieving the foregoing objectives, the Technical Committee is assigned and authorized by the Board to:
    • Develop the overall technical strategy, with ratification by the Board of Directors
    • Develop and manage the Technical Committee budget subject to Board approval of the budget;
    • Report to the Board on the activities of the Technical Committee and its Work Groups and Task Forces (Work Groups and Task Forces are defined in Section 4);
    • Develop a process for creation and review of technical documentation
    • Establish and disband Work Groups and Task Forces as required for TGG Technical Committee activities
    • Ensure proper dissemination of Board directions to the Technical Committee Work Groups and Task Forces
    • Develop technical content for The Green Grid website as requested by the Communications Committee
    • Provide Technical Committee approval for all technical content prepared by Work Groups or Task Forces, prior to Board approval;
    • Submit completed deliverables from Work Groups and/or Task Forces to the Board for approval;
    • When necessary, be the advocate for and/or request specific deliverables on behalf of Technical Committee Work Groups or Task Forces
    • Review requests for specific technical deliverables and assign items of merit to specific Work Groups or Task Forces for completion
    • Review outbound Green Grid content for technical accuracy prior to publication
    • Resolve issues across Work Groups and/or Task Forces 
    • Manage the activities and deliverables of Work Groups and Task Forces that are committed by Work Groups and Task Forces to the Technical Committee;
    • Report technical issues to the Board if the Technical Committee fails to reach any decision on a specific technical issue within a reasonable period of time and provide the Board with reasonable options for its decision;
    • Perform any other tasks reasonably related to, or necessary for, achieving the foregoing objectives and activities or other tasks within the scope of the above objectives duly assigned by the Board from time-to-time
• Participants
  • The Board Members and Contributor Members are entitled to participate in the activities of the Technical Committee in accordance with the following classification of participants in each organization within the Technical Committee:
    • Each Board company shall be entitled to appoint a representative to the Technical Committee. Contributor Members may be permitted, at the discretion of the Board of Directors, to appoint a representative to the Technical Committee. General Member companies shall not have representation on the Technical Committee.
    • There shall be two types of participants on the Technical Committee: Voting Members and Corresponding Members. Voting members are responsible for review and approval of all output from the Technical Committee and other Technical Committee decisions. Corresponding members shall receive Technical Committee communications and may participate in the Technical Committee efforts, but will not be permitted to vote. No company may have more than 2 corresponding members.
    • Technical Committee voting membership shall be limited to 18 persons. As stated, each Board member company is entitled to one of those voting membership positions. The remaining spots may be filled by Contributor member company representatives as approved annually by the Board when the Technical Committee Chair submits the proposed roster of voting and contributing membership..
    • No company shall have more than one voting member on the Technical Committee. Contributor Member Company Voting Membership shall be on a rotating basis with a length of term of three years. The terms shall be staggered so roughly 1/3 of the non-Board voting members will rotate off each year.
    • The Work Group/Task Force chair shall present a list each year to the Technical Committee with the proposed member roster for Technical Committee approval. Each Board company shall be entitled to appoint a representative to each Work Group and Task Force. Contributor members may also have a representative participate in Work Groups and Task Forces with Work Group/Task Force roster approval by the Technical Committee.
• Organization
  • At the commencement of The Green Grid, there shall be only a Technical Committee with approved working groups reporting to the Technical Committee. As necessary and appropriate, the Technical Committee, with approval of the Board, may establish additional Work Groups and Task Forces.
  • Work Groups are teams that are expected to have an on-going mission and charter. Work Groups are not expected to sunset. Work Groups are the active working home for the performance of The Green Grid efforts and expected output. The Technical Committee may modify, from time to time and with Board approval, the number and scope of the standing Work Groups.
  • Each Work Group will submit their proposed plan for work for the upcoming quarter to the Technical Committee. The Work Group shall base the plan on direction from the Technical Committee and from the Board through the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee shall approve or modify the plan to meet the needs and expected output of The Green Grid.
  • Task Forces are teams that are created and pulled together to solve a specific problem or produce a specific deliverable. The Task Force chartering document must be approved by the Technical Committee and shall include: 1) Problem Statement, 2) Task Force Deliverable, 3) Membership, including Chair and Vice Chair, 4) Budget, and 5) Schedule and Milestones. The Task Force is expected to sunset at the completion of the project and delivery of the specific output (e.g. report, white paper, etc...).
    • Technical Committee Executive Council
      • The Executive Council shall be made up of the Technical Committee Chair, Vice Chair, and Chair of each Work Group. The Technical Committee Executive Council shall meet as needed to set schedules, ensure progress on tasks and deliverables, and coordination of the Work Groups and Task Forces. The Executive Council activity shall be limited to that necessary to ensure the successful operation of the Work Group/Task Forces, primarily monitoring performance and resolving logistical issues. Technical reviews, approvals, and direction setting are Technical Committee activities. The Technical Committee has the ability to overturn any Executive Council action or decision.
    • Work Groups/Task Forces
      • Work Groups shall be formed to effectively cover the breadth and scope of The Green Grid Mission. The number of Work Groups will be as determined by the Technical Committee (with Board approval) and shall be an appropriate number to ensure that the required output of the Technical Committee is divided into manageable efforts.
      • No Task Forces shall exist at The Green Grid outset, as Task Forces are established to solve specific problems and to then sunset
    • Chair and Vice Chair
      • The Technical Committee shall be led by a Chair and a Vice Chair, who shall be elected by the Technical Committee.
      • The tasks of the Chair are to:
        • set the schedule for, preside over and facilitate the meetings of the committee or which he or she Chairs;
        • prepare meeting agendas for the such meetings;
        • create and align overall activity schedule and budget of Technical Committee;
        • coordinate communications strategy development;
        • ensure Board direction is properly disseminated through the Committee;
        • initiate and proceed voting procedures on matters requiring a formal vote of the Technical Committee;
        • in the case of the Technical Committee Chair, maintain communications and interface with the communications committee chair to ensure timely interactions and efficient joint activities (e.g. preparation of White Papers, etc..);
        • in the case of the Technical Committee, monitor Work Groups' performance;
        • in the case of the Technical Committee, periodically report activities and progress to the Board; and
        • perform any other tasks inseparably related to or necessary for achieving the foregoing tasks.
      • The Technical Committee Vice Chair shall perform the following tasks of the Vice Chair during their tenure.
      • The tasks of the Vice Chair are to:
        • assist the Chair in meeting planning;
        • perform the role of the Chair in the case that the Chair is unable to perform one or more of his/her tasks;
        • compile notes and actions of the meeting and distribute meeting minutes;
        • archive of documents: i.e. agendas, minutes, presentation materials, etc.;
        • maintain distribution list and mailing list;
        • participate in preparing status reports of the Technical Committee to the Board (or Work Group/Task Force to the Technical Committee); and
        • follow-up the then-current status of action items listed on a previous action list of the Technical Committee.
      • Work Groups and Task Forces shall generally adhere to the same structure. Work Group and Task Force Chairs and Vice Chairs shall be appointed by the Technical Committee. No company may hold more than one Work Group Chair position. The Work Group/Task Force chairs do not necessarily need to be the voting member on the Technical Committee, but shall be, as a minimum, a Corresponding Member.
• Decisions by the Technical Committee.
  • Each member of the Technical Committee has one vote for each voted proposal before the Technical Committee.
  • The Technical Committee will pursue to make decisions by a 2/3 majority, according to the following voting rules:
    • A quorum for voting is met by the presence of 8 (out of 11) or more of all Members of the Technical Committee (hereinafter such present Member is referred to as “Voter”);
    • Each Voter shall cast a vote as “Yes”, “No”, or “Abstain”;
    • The number of “Abstain” votes shall be included in the number of votes cast;
    • A voted proposal shall be approved if more than 66% of the quorum votes “Yes”.
  • For any topic the Technical Committee can initiate voting by e-mail pursuant the following voting rules:
    • The Chair shall notify by e-mail all Members participating in the activities of the Technical Committee of proposal to be voted and a due date for casting a vote on the proposal;
    • The due date set by the Chair shall not be earlier than 6th working day after the date when the above notification is made, unless the Chair determines, and both Vice Chairs agree, that the topic to be voted on is time sensitive, in which case, the due date may be 3 working days from the date of the notification;
    • A voted proposal shall be approved if more than 66% of the Members that have voted on the proposal by the due date have voted for the proposal.
  • The Work Groups/Task Forces will attempt to operate on a consensus decision making basis, and as necessary revert to a majority rule basis. All Work Group/Task Force approved output shall go to the Technical Committee for final review, approval, and dissemination.
  • Notwithstanding the foregoing voting rules, the Technical Committee budget must be approved by the Board of Directors.