Governance

Bylaws of the Direct Power Alliance

How the Alliance is governed: membership, the board, the working groups, and the intellectual-property and antitrust policies that keep the standard open and neutral.

Article IName & Offices

Establishes the Direct Power Alliance and its registered office.

Article IIPurposes

A neutral, member-governed consortium to define, publish, and steward an open native-DC (800VDC) power standard for AI data centers — generation to rack — and demonstrate it with a reference architecture and pilot. Operated not for profit.

Article IIIMembership

Seven classes — Founding, Gold, Silver, Associate, Research & Academic, Individual, and Liaison — with dues and votes per the Membership table. Government institutional funding flows through grants, cooperative agreements, or OTAs, not dues. The Founding class closes at $30M (≈10 founders) or ratification of Spec v1.0.

Article IVMeetings of Members

Annual and special meetings, notice, quorum, and voting (votes scale with membership class). Electronic participation permitted.

Article VBoard of Directors

Up to twelve voting directors: one per Founding Member (up to ten), one elected by industry members, one by the research caucus; the Executive Director serves ex officio without a vote. No single member or group holds a majority.

Article VIOfficers

Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, elected by the board; an optional Executive Director runs operations.

Article VIITechnical Working Groups

Four chartered working groups — Generation & Storage, Distribution & Bus, Protection & Safety, Codes & Certification — operating by rough consensus, with output subject to the IPR policy.

Article VIIIIntellectual Property Rights

Members must disclose patent claims essential to a final specification and grant every implementer an irrevocable, royalty-free, reciprocal license to those claims for compliant implementations — with a no-patent-ambush rule, a defensive-suspension clause, and open publication of every specification. The standard stays free to implement; products built to it compete on their merits.

Article IXAntitrust Compliance

Full commitment to competition law: no discussion of prices, output, customers, or territories; published agendas, minutes, and the right to halt any concerning discussion.

Article XFinances

Fiscal year, dues, no private inurement, and an annual financial review.

Article XIIndemnification

Indemnifies directors, officers, and agents to the extent the law allows.

Article XIIConflicts & Code of Conduct

Disclosure and recusal for conflicts; a code of conduct for meetings and online participation.

Article XIIIAmendments

Bylaws amended by a two-thirds vote of votes cast at a duly called meeting.

Article XIVDissolution

On dissolution, remaining assets go to organizations with a consistent mission, per the Alliance’s tax-exempt status.

Working draft. These bylaws are a founding draft under review by nonprofit and antitrust counsel. The patent policy is settled: essential claims are licensed royalty-free (Article VIII). Two provisions — entity type (501(c)(6) recommended) and state of incorporation — remain pending final decisions. For the full current draft, contact [email protected].