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88-653: As the ISO for the region, ERCOT dispatches power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and more than 610 generation units. ERCOT also performs financial settlements for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 7 million premises in competitive choice areas. According to an ERCOT report, the major sources of generating capacity in Texas are natural gas (51%), wind (24.8%), coal (13.4%), nuclear (4.9%), solar (3.8%), and hydroelectric or biomass-fired units (1.9%). ERCOT

176-428: A battery is usually expressed indirectly by its capacity in ampere-hours ; to convert ampere-hour (Ah) to watt-hours (Wh), the ampere-hour value must be multiplied by the voltage of the power source. This value is approximate, since the battery voltage is not constant during its discharge, and because higher discharge rates reduce the total amount of energy that the battery can provide. In the case of devices that output

264-456: A federal court decision in 2018. The origins of 501(c)(4) organizations date back to the Revenue Act of 1913 , which created a new group of tax-exempt organizations dedicated to social welfare in a precursor to what is now Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(4). The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 introduced a new requirement on 501(c)(4) organizations. Within 60 days of

352-671: A 501(c) organization is subject to tax on its " unrelated business income ", whether or not the organization actually makes a profit, but not including selling donated merchandise or other business or trade carried on by volunteers, or certain bingo games. Disposal of donated goods valued over $ 2,500, or acceptance of goods worth over $ 5,000 may also trigger special filing and record-keeping requirements. Tax exemption does not excuse an organization from maintaining proper records and filing any required annual or special-purpose tax returns , e.g., 26 U.S.C.   § 6033 and 26 U.S.C.   § 6050L . Prior to 2008, an annual return

440-513: A 501(c)(5) organization, that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a particular political candidate and spends more than $ 250 during a calendar year must disclose the name of each person who contributed more than $ 200 during the calendar year to the Federal Election Commission . The Federal Election Commission is required to enforce this provision based on a federal court decision in 2018. A 501(c)(6) organization

528-419: A 501(c)(6) organization to raise and distribute over $ 250 million during the 2012 election campaigns without disclosing its donors. The group's existence was not publicly known until nearly a year after the election. A business's membership dues paid to a 501(c)(6) organization are generally an ordinary and necessary business expense. The membership dues are tax-deductible in full unless a substantial part of

616-650: A board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Texas Legislature . The PUC has primary jurisdiction over activities conducted by ERCOT. Three PUC commissioners, including the chair, are appointed by the governor of Texas. The ERCOT organization is governed by a board of directors made up of independent members, consumers and representatives from each of ERCOT's electric market segments. The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) makes policy recommendations to

704-401: A change over time. For example: miles per hour, kilometres per hour, dollars per hour. Power units, such as kW, already measure the rate of energy per unit time (kW= kJ / s ). Kilowatt-hours are a product of power and time, not a rate of change of power with time. Watts per hour (W/h) is a unit of a change of power per hour, i.e. an acceleration in the delivery of energy. It is used to measure

792-414: A club of individuals, and no individual may derive profit from the organization's net earnings. Examples include college alumni associations ; college fraternities or college sororities operating chapter houses for students; country clubs ; amateur sport clubs ; supper clubs that provide a meeting place, library, and dining room for members; hobby clubs ; and garden clubs . A substantial amount of

880-442: A different voltage than the battery, it is the battery voltage (typically 3.7 V for Li-ion ) that must be used to calculate rather than the device output (for example, usually 5.0 V for USB portable chargers). This results in a 500 mA USB device running for about 3.7 hours on a 2,500 mAh battery, not five hours. The Board of Trade unit (B.T.U.) is an obsolete UK synonym for kilowatt-hour. The term derives from

968-458: A major winter storm impacted Texas ; freezing and extreme cold at natural gas pipelines and wells, as well as generating units (such as coal-fired power plants and wind turbines) caused power outages across Texas affecting 3.2 million customers. ERCOT and its regulator, the Public Utility Commission of Texas , failed to adopt a mandatory standard for preparing electricity infrastructure for such occurrences (winterization), despite recommendations from

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1056-621: A nonprofit organization may be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) if its primary activities are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering amateur sports competition, or preventing cruelty to children or animals . According to the IRS Publication 557, in the Organization Reference Chart section, the following is an exact list of 501(c) organization types (29 in total) and their corresponding descriptions. Under Section 511,

1144-747: A primary benefactor of this organization type, dating to the 19th century. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a 501(c)(5) organization has a duty of providing service to its members first. The organization's benefits may not inure to a specific member, but the rules for inurement vary among the three different types of organizations under this segment. A 501(c)(5) organization can make unlimited corporate, individual, or union contributions. A labor organization may pay benefits to its members because paying benefits improves all members' shared working conditions. An agricultural organization can provide financial assistance to its members in order to improve

1232-417: A public charity's activities can go to lobbying, charities may register for a 501(h) election allowing them to lawfully conduct lobbying activities as long as their financial expenditure does not exceed a specified amount. 501(c)(3) organizations risk loss of tax exempt status if any of these rules are violated. A 501(c)(3) organization is allowed to conduct some or all of its charitable activities outside

1320-414: A result of it having investing millions in cold weather upgrades after the 2011 cold snap, 3,000 customers lost power for less than five minutes. In counties around Beaumont in eastern Texas, Entergy suffered relatively few outages either, because of previous winterization efforts. The first lawsuits against ERCOT grid mismanagement were filed on February 19, 2021. On March 8, 2021, ERCOT began releasing

1408-446: A specific type of business is also not typically qualifying, as that would usually be more of a commercial enterprise. For example, the service of managing health insurance plans for its member businesses is often a commercial enterprise if it is not substantially related to improving the business conditions for specific lines of businesses. An association that promotes the common interests of certain hobbyists would not qualify because

1496-463: A substantial number of these activities, then only the amount of dues or contributions that can be attributed to other activities may be deductible as a business expense. The organization must provide a notice to its members containing a reasonable estimate of the amount related to lobbying and political campaign expenditures, or else it is subject to a proxy tax on its lobbying and political campaign expenditures. It must also state that contributions to

1584-515: A team of journalists in Houston to set the death toll at 194, while a later review of excess deaths by journalists at BuzzFeed estimated the full true, indirect mortalities to be between 426 and 978, four to five times higher than the final toll. An 11-year-old boy, Cristian Pavon, who died of suspected hypothermia was among the deaths caused by ERCOT's grid system. Pavon's family sued Entergy Texas and ERCOT for gross negligence. Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT,

1672-451: A unit in the left column to the units in the top row, multiply by the factor in the cell where the row and column intersect. All the SI prefixes are commonly applied to the watt-hour: a kilowatt-hour is 1,000 Wh (kWh); a megawatt-hour is 1 million Wh (MWh); a milliwatt-hour is 1/1,000 Wh (mWh) and so on. The kilowatt-hour is commonly used by electrical energy providers for purposes of billing, since

1760-462: A weekly market notice that includes entities that have paid previously identified short-pay amounts and provides an updated estimate of the aggregate outstanding short-pay amount. On February 16, 2021, it was reported that at least 10 deaths were linked to the 2021 ERCOT grid power outages. By late March, the total number of deaths surpassed 110. A comprehensive review of news reports, death certificates, and lawsuit filings from every county in Texas led

1848-590: A whole, however, the organization will generally qualify if it also performs other services for its members. Much like 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(5) organizations, 501(c)(6) organizations may also perform some political activities. 501(c)(6) organizations are allowed to attempt to influence legislation that is related to the common business interests of its members. A 501(c)(6) organization may receive unlimited contributions from corporations, individuals, and labor unions. The names and addresses of contributors are not required to be made available for public inspection, with

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1936-485: A yearly basis, in units such as megawatt-hours per year (MWh/yr) gigawatt-hours/year (GWh/yr) or terawatt-hours per year (TWh/yr). These units have dimensions of energy divided by time and thus are units of power. They can be converted to SI power units by dividing by the number of hours in a year, about 8760 h/yr . Thus, 1 GWh/yr = 1 GWh/8760 h ≈ 114.12 kW . Many compound units for various kinds of rates explicitly mention units of time to indicate

2024-575: Is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour . Kilowatt-hours are a common billing unit for electrical energy supplied by electric utilities . Metric prefixes are used for multiples and submultiples of the basic unit, the watt-hour (3.6 kJ). The kilowatt-hour is a composite unit of energy equal to one kilowatt (kW) sustained for (multiplied by) one hour. The International System of Units (SI) unit of energy meanwhile

2112-560: Is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)). Such organizations are exempt from some federal income taxes . Sections 503 through 505 set out the requirements for obtaining such exemptions. Many states refer to Section 501(c) for definitions of organizations exempt from state taxation as well. 501(c) organizations can receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations , and unions . For example,

2200-553: Is a business league, a chamber of commerce like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , a real estate board, a board of trade, a professional football league or an organization like the Edison Electric Institute and the Security Industry Association , that are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings goes to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. A business league may qualify if it

2288-744: Is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, and its members include consumers, electric cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers), and municipally owned electric utilities. Power demand in the ERCOT region is typically highest in summer, primarily due to air conditioning use in homes and businesses. The ERCOT region's all-time record peak hour occurred on August 20, 2024, when consumer demand hit 85,931 MW. A megawatt of electricity can power about 200 Texas homes during periods of peak demand. By 2022, ERCOT had 2 GW of grid batteries , with another 6 GW underway. At

2376-643: Is a social welfare organization, such as a civic organization or a neighborhood association . An organization is considered by the IRS to be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare if it is primarily engaged in promoting the common good and general welfare of the people of the community. Net earnings must be exclusively used for charitable, educational, or recreational purposes. According to The Washington Post , 501(c)(4) organizations: ...are allowed to participate in politics, so long as politics do not become their primary focus. What that means in practice

2464-442: Is an association of persons having a common business interest, whose purpose is to promote the common business interest and whose activities improve business conditions rather than actually conduct the business itself. Members of the organization must be of the same trade, business, occupation, or profession in order to qualify. A local chamber of commerce or board of trade could qualify for similar reasons except that they may promote

2552-473: Is calculated by multiplying the device's power consumption in kilowatts by the operating time in hours, and by the price per kilowatt-hour. The unit price of electricity charged by utility companies may depend on the customer's consumption profile over time. Prices vary considerably by locality. In the United States prices in different states can vary by a factor of three. While smaller customer loads are usually billed only for energy, transmission services, and

2640-450: Is measured in watts , or joules per second . For example, a battery stores energy. When the battery delivers its energy, it does so at a certain power, that is, the rate of delivery of the energy. The higher the power, the quicker the battery's stored energy is delivered. A higher power output will cause the battery's stored energy to be depleted in a shorter time period. Electric energy production and consumption are sometimes reported on

2728-402: Is not required to send the notification if the organization was formed on or before July 8, 2016, and it either applied for a determination letter using Form 1024 or filed a Form 990 between December 19, 2015, and July 8, 2016. As of January 2018, the application for recognition of exemption as a 501(c)(4) organization is a new form, Form 1024-A, rather than Form 1024. Between 2010 and 2017,

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2816-445: Is often expressed as terawatt-hours (TWh) for a given period that is often a calendar year or financial year . A 365-day year equals 8,760 hours, so over a period of one year, power of one gigawatt equates to 8.76 terawatt-hours of energy. Conversely, one terawatt-hour is equal to a sustained power of about 114 megawatts for a period of one year. In 2020, the average household in the United States consumed 893 kWh per month. Raising

2904-612: Is organized and operated exclusively for those purposes. There are also supporting organizations—often referred to in shorthand form as "Friends of" organizations. 26 U.S.C.   § 170 , provides a deduction, for federal income tax purposes, for some donors who make charitable contributions to most types of 501(c)(3) organizations, among others. The IRS explains that to be tax-exempt, "an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes ... and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual." Private inurement means that

2992-562: Is related to its purpose. A 501(c)(4) organization may directly or indirectly support or oppose a candidate for public office as long as such activities are not a substantial amount of its activities. A 501(c)(4) organization that lobbies must register with the Clerk of the House if it lobbies members of the House or their staff. Likewise, a 501(c)(4) organization must register with the Secretary of

3080-402: Is related to the common union interests of its members. 501(c)(5) organizations can receive unlimited contributions from corporations, individuals, and labor unions. The names and addresses of contributors are not required to be made available for public inspection. All other information, including the amount of contributions, the description of noncash contributions, and any other information,

3168-418: Is required to be made available for public inspection unless it clearly identifies the contributor. A union membership dues paid to a 501(c)(5) organization are generally an ordinary and necessary business expense. The membership dues are tax-deductible in full unless a substantial part of the 501(c)(5) organization's activities consists of political activity, in which case a tax deduction is allowed only for

3256-524: Is that they must spend less than 50 percent of their money on politics. So long as they don't run afoul of that threshold, the groups can influence elections, which they typically do through advertising. 501(c)(4)s are similar to 501(c)(5)s and 501(c)(6)s in that the organizations may inform the public on controversial subjects and attempt to influence legislation relevant to its program. Unlike 501(c)(3) organizations, they may also participate in political campaigns and elections, as long as their primary activity

3344-474: Is the joule (symbol J). Because a watt is by definition one joule per second , and because there are 3,600 seconds in an hour, one kWh equals 3,600  kilojoules or 3.6 MJ. A widely used representation of the kilowatt-hour is kWh , derived from its component units, kilowatt and hour. It is commonly used in billing for delivered energy to consumers by electric utility companies, and in commercial, educational, and scientific publications, and in

3432-591: Is the promotion of social welfare and related to the organization's purpose. The income tax exemption for 501(c)(4) organizations applies to most of their operations, but income spent on political activities—generally the advocacy of a particular candidate in an election—is taxable. An "action" organization generally qualifies as a 501(c)(4) organization. An "action" organization is one whose activities substantially include, or are exclusively, direct or grassroots lobbying related to advocacy for or against legislation or proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation that

3520-467: Is used with loads or output that vary during the year but whose annual totals are similar from one year to the next. For example, it is useful to compare the energy efficiency of household appliances whose power consumption varies with time or the season of the year. Another use is to measure the energy produced by a distributed power source. One kilowatt-hour per year equals about 114.08 milliwatts applied constantly during one year. The energy content of

3608-703: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). Texas's failure to prepare left the state vulnerable to winter-storm blackouts, including the major disaster that occurred ten years later in February 2021. During a major cold-weather event in mid-February 2021, ERCOT declared a statewide emergency, due to a 34,000 MW shortfall in generation that caused widespread blackouts . At 1:25 a.m. on February 15, ERCOT began requesting blackouts from service providers. On February 16, electricity shortages caused

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3696-433: The annual electricity generation for whole countries and the world energy consumption . A kilowatt is a unit of power (rate of flow of energy per unit of time). A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy. Kilowatt per hour would be a rate of change of power flow with time. Work is the amount of energy transferred to a system; power is the rate of delivery of energy. Energy is measured in joules , or watt-seconds . Power

3784-439: The 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act or the 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act . IRC 501(c)(6) amendment was enacted in 1966 to ensure that a professional football league's exemption would not be jeopardized because it administered a players' pension fund. Additionally, a professional sports league's exemption is not to be jeopardized because its primary source of revenue is the sale of television broadcasting rights to its games because

3872-436: The 2012 election season. Every organization, including a 501(c)(4) organization, that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a particular political candidate and spends more than $ 250 during a calendar year must disclose the name of each person who contributed more than $ 200 during the calendar year to the Federal Election Commission . The Federal Election Commission is required to enforce this provision based on

3960-457: The 501(c)(6) organization's activities consists of political activity, in which case a tax deduction is allowed only for the portion of membership dues that are for other activities. Every organization, including a 501(c)(6) organization, that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a particular political candidate and spends more than $ 250 during a calendar year must disclose the name of each person who contributed more than $ 200 during

4048-506: The 501(c)(7) organization's activities must be related to social and recreational activities for its members. No more than 35 percent of its gross receipts may derive from non-members, and no more than 15 percent of its gross receipts is permitted to come from use of its facilities or services by the general public. An organization that exceeds these limits may lose its 501(c)(7) status. Megawatt-hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol : kW⋅h or kW h ; commonly written as kWh )

4136-477: The 990 form. 501(c)(3) tax-exemptions apply to entities that are organized and operated exclusively for religious , charitable , scientific , literary , or educational purposes; or for testing for public safety, to foster national or international amateur sports competition, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals . The 501(c)(3) exemption also applies for any unincorporated community chest , fund, cooperating association , or foundation that

4224-968: The ERCOT Board of Directors. The TAC is assisted by five standing subcommittees as well as numerous workgroups and task forces. The ERCOT board appoints ERCOT's officers to direct and manage ERCOT's day-to-day operations, accompanied by a team of executives and managers responsible for critical components of ERCOT's operation. During the February 2021 storm, it emerged that a third of ERCOT's board of directors lived outside of Texas: Chairperson Sally A. Talberg lived in Michigan, Vice-Chair Peter Cramton lived in California and worked for universities in Germany and Maryland, and three board members lived in Toronto, Illinois, and Maine respectively. This revelation drew considerable anger from

4312-453: The Form 990-EZ or Form 990-PF) must be available for public inspection and photocopying at the offices of the exempt organization, through a written request and payment for photocopies by mail from the exempt organization, or through a direct Form 4506-A "Request for Public Inspection or Copy or Political Organization IRS Form" request to the IRS of for the past three tax years. Form 4506-A also allows

4400-423: The Internal Revenue Service does not consider hobbies to be activities conducted as businesses. An organization whose primary activity is advertising the products or services of its members does not qualify because the organization is performing a service for its members rather than promoting common interests. If an organization's primary activity is advertising the products or services of its members' industry as

4488-415: The SI. An electric heater consuming 1,000 watts (1 kilowatt) operating for one hour uses one kilowatt-hour of energy. A television consuming 100 watts operating continuously for 10 hours uses one kilowatt-hour. A 40-watt electric appliance operating continuously for 25 hours uses one kilowatt-hour. Electrical energy is typically sold to consumers in kilowatt-hours. The cost of running an electrical device

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4576-552: The Senate if it lobbies members of the Senate or their staff. In addition, the 501(c)(4) organization must either inform its members the amount it spends on lobbying or pay a proxy tax to the Internal Revenue Service. Lobbying expenses and political expenses are not deductible as business expenses. The use of 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) organizations has been affected by the 2007 case FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. , in which

4664-548: The Supreme Court struck down the part of the McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited 501(c)(4)s, 501(c)(5)s, and 501(c)(6)s from broadcasting electioneering communications. The Act defined an electioneering communication as a communication that mentions a candidate's name 60 days before a primary or 30 days before a general election. Contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations are not tax-deductible as charitable donations unless

4752-471: The Texas grid is not subject to regulation under the Federal Power Act , being an intrastate grid for the purposes of that law. On May 4, 1976, Central Southwest Holdings attempted to force the issue, with an event that was later called the "Midnight Connection", where it connected the grid to Oklahoma for a few hours. This caused lawsuits about whether federal regulation then applied, however the judgement

4840-404: The United States. Donors' contributions to a 501(c)(3) organization are tax-deductible only if the contribution is for the use of the 501(c)(3) organization, and that the 501(c)(3) organization is not merely serving as an agent or conduit of a foreign charitable organization. Additional procedures are required of 501(c)(3) organizations that are private foundations . A 501(c)(4) organization

4928-542: The beginning of World War II , several electric utilities in Texas agreed to operate together as the Texas Interconnected System (TIS) to support the war effort. During the war, the grid was interconnected to other states and excess power generation was sent to industries on the Gulf Coast , providing a more reliable supply of electricity for production of metal and other material needed for the war. Recognizing

5016-536: The broadcasting of games increases public awareness of the sport. In 2013, Senator Tom Coburn introduced legislation to disallow a tax exemption for the National Football League , the Professional Golfers' Association of America , and other professional sports organizations. Coburn estimated the tax exemption cost $ 100 million, but he said he could not get other members of Congress to support

5104-600: The calendar year to the Federal Election Commission . The Federal Election Commission is required to enforce this provision based on a federal court decision in 2018. The predecessor of IRC 501(c)(6) was enacted as part of the Revenue Act of 1913 likely due to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce request for an exemption for nonprofit "civic" and "commercial" organizations, which resulted in IRC 501(c)(4) for nonprofit "civic" organizations and IRC 501(c)(6) for nonprofit "commercially-oriented" organizations. The Revenue Act of 1928 amended

5192-408: The common economic interests of all the commercial enterprises in a given trade or community. In order to qualify for a tax-exemption under section 501(c)(6), the organization must specify that it seeks to promote and improve business condition for a specific type of business. Improving business conditions for all types of businesses is not generally qualifying. Similarly, providing a service for

5280-725: The conditions of those engaged in agricultural pursuits generally. Members can benefit in incidental ways from the organization's exempt activities as long as the benefits are available to all persons. The first exemption for labor organizations from corporate income tax was enacted as part of the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 . The Revenue Act of 1913 excluded "labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations" from income tax liability. Much like 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) organizations, 501(c)(5) organizations may also perform some political activities. 501(c)(5) organizations are allowed to attempt to influence legislation that

5368-558: The daily variation of demand (e.g. the slope of the duck curve ), or ramp-up behavior of power plants . For example, a power plant that reaches a power output of 1 MW from 0 MW in 15 minutes has a ramp-up rate of 4 MW/h . Other uses of terms such as watts per hour are likely to be errors. Several other units related to kilowatt-hour are commonly used to indicate power or energy capacity or use in specific application areas. Average annual energy production or consumption can be expressed in kilowatt-hours per year. This

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5456-421: The exception of a 501(c)(6) organization that makes independent expenditures . All other information, including the amount of contributions, the description of non-cash contributions, and any other information, is required to be made available for public inspection unless it clearly identifies the contributor. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a large political spender, and Freedom Partners used its status as

5544-410: The exclusively religious activities of any religious order; and religious organizations; and most organizations whose annual gross receipts are less than $ 5,000. Failure to file such timely returns and to make other specific information available to the public also is prohibited. Between 2010 and 2017 the IRS revoked the nonprofit status of more than 760,000 nonprofit organizations for failing to file

5632-570: The five out-of-state board members effective the end of the board meeting the following day. In October 2021, El Paso billionaire Paul Foster became the new Chairperson even though El Paso is not part of the Texas power grid. The other open positions were filled afterwards. Foster resigned in June 2024. It has a headquarters in Austin and an additional complex in Taylor . 501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization

5720-460: The legislation. A 501(c)(7) organization is a social or recreational club that is organized for pleasure, recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes. Members must share interests and have a common goal directed toward pleasure and recreation, and the organization must provide opportunities for personal contact among members. The organization's facilities and services must be open to its members and their guests only. The organization must be

5808-526: The media. It is also the usual unit representation in electrical power engineering. This common representation, however, does not comply with the style guide of the International System of Units (SI). Other representations of the unit may be encountered: The hour is a unit of time listed among the non-SI units accepted by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for use with

5896-403: The monthly energy consumption of a typical residential customer ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand kilowatt-hours. Megawatt-hours (MWh), gigawatt-hours (GWh), and terawatt-hours (TWh) are often used for metering larger amounts of electrical energy to industrial customers and in power generation. The terawatt-hour and petawatt-hour (PWh) units are large enough to conveniently express

5984-471: The multi-day storm. At first, rotating outages lasting from 10 to 40 minutes were imposed on millions of customers, but those outages lasted many hours for some and over 48 hours for others, while millions more were spared from any hardship. During the power loss, some Texans were forced to survive in record freezing temperatures down to −2 °F (−19 °C). On February 16, Governor Greg Abbott declared that ERCOT reform would be an emergency priority for

6072-511: The number of 501(c)(4) organizations dropped from almost 140,000 to fewer than 82,000. In 2017 revocations of 501(c)(4) groups comprised 58% which usually is only 15% of the total nonprofits which have their tax status revoked by the IRS for their failure to file Form 990. A 501(c)(5) organization is a labor organization, an agricultural organization, or a horticultural organization. Labor unions, county fairs, and flower societies are examples of these types of groups. Labor union organizations were

6160-720: The organization are not deductible as charitable contributions during fundraising. A 501(c)(4) organization is not required to disclose their donors publicly, with the exception of organizations that make independent expenditures as of 2018. The former complete lack of disclosure led to extensive use of the 501(c)(4) provisions for organizations that are actively involved in lobbying , and has become controversial. Criticized as " dark money ", spending from these organizations on political advertisements has exceeded spending from Super PACs . Spending by organizations that do not disclose their donors increased from less than $ 5.2   million in 2006 to well over $ 300   million during

6248-400: The organization is either a volunteer fire department or a veterans organization. Dues or contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations may be deductible as a business expense under IRC 162, although amounts paid for intervention or participation in any political campaign, direct lobbying, grass roots lobbying, and contact with certain federal officials are not deductible. If a 501(c)(4) engages in

6336-409: The organization's assets must not unduly benefit a person. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are prohibited from conducting political campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office. On the other hand, public charities (but not private foundations) may conduct a limited amount of lobbying to influence legislation. Although the law states that "No substantial part..." of

6424-414: The organization's formation, a 501(c)(4) organization is required to file Form 8976 with the Internal Revenue Service as notification that it is operating as a section 501(c)(4) organization. The Internal Revenue Service will acknowledge receipt of the notification, but the acknowledgment is not a determination that the organization qualifies for section 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. A 501(c)(4) organization

6512-542: The placement of electrical lines. The legislation abolished the former system, in which power was both generated and consumed locally. Instead, under the deregulated regime, retailers could contract with providers across the state, creating a complex market. The 1999 deregulation also dropped limits on rate increases. Prior to deregulation, residential electricity rates were significantly below the national average; after deregulation, residential electricity rates increased, rising 64% between 1999 and 2007. In early February 2011,

6600-418: The portion of membership dues that are for other activities. Because associations involved in fishing and seafood harvesting were having difficulties qualifying for reduced postal rates, in 1976 Congress established Internal Revenue Code Section 501(5) to define "agriculture" as the art or science of cultivating land, harvesting crops or aquatic resources, or raising livestock. Every organization, including

6688-405: The power grid reached a record 85 gigawatts in 2023 — the hottest year recorded in Texas. In 2024, ERCOT projected that demand could reach 150 gigawatts by 2030. The increase in demand is the result of large users, including data centers and crypto currency mining operations, as well as oil and gas production that is switching from gas- and diesel-generated power to electricity. ERCOT is governed by

6776-478: The previous year, leading to a reduction in midday natural gas usage. Solar generation peaked at 5.3 GWh in the summer and 3.8 GWh in the winter, while wind generation remained the largest renewable contributor at 108,000 GWh. ERCOT anticipates a substantial rise in solar capacity, with plans for 24 GW of solar and 13 GW of battery storage additions by 2025, compared to a modest 3 GW increase in both wind and natural gas capacities. ERCOT reported that energy demand on

6864-411: The price of electricity to spike to over $ 9,000 per megawatt-hour (MWh), whereas the week before, the lowest price of power had been less than $ 30 per MWh. Some retail electricity providers were possibly facing huge losses or bankruptcy, and customers of Griddy reported receiving absurdly high electric bills. Approximately 4 million customers in Texas were without electricity for various times during

6952-412: The public as well as elected representatives, and the board members' names and photographs were temporarily removed from the ERCOT website due to death threats . The board was also criticized for its meeting days before the storm: though the meeting lasted more than two hours, the members spent less than a minute discussing storm preparations and readiness. On February 23, ERCOT announced the resignation of

7040-508: The public inspection or photocopying access to Form 1023 "Application for Recognition of Exemption" or Form 1024, Form 8871 "Political Organization Notice of Section 527 Status", and Form 8872 "Political Organization Report of Contribution and Expenditures". Internet access to many organizations' 990 and some other forms are available through GuideStar . Certain organizations are exempt from filing Form 990, such as churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches;

7128-423: The rated capacity, larger consumers also pay for peak power consumption, the greatest power recorded in a fairly short time, such as 15 minutes. This compensates the power company for maintaining the infrastructure needed to provide peak power. These charges are billed as demand changes. Industrial users may also have extra charges according to the power factor of their load. Major energy production or consumption

7216-515: The reliability advantages of remaining interconnected, TIS members continued to operate and develop the interconnected grid. TIS members adopted official operating guides for their interconnected power system and established two monitoring centers within the control centers of two utilities, one in North Texas and one in South Texas. In 1970, ERCOT was formed to comply with NERC requirements. However,

7304-626: The state legislature, and there would be an investigation of the power outage to determine long-term solutions. A 357-page report had been written after the 2011 power outage in Texas, which seemed to have been ignored, because too many critical generators still lacked appropriate weatherization in 2021, especially the natural gas system. Texans outside the ERCOT-controlled grid had a different power experience. Relatively few electric customers lost power in those regions. In counties around El Paso in western Texas, El Paso Electric reported that, as

7392-455: The statute to include real estate boards. In 1966, professional football leagues were added to the described organizations. The Revenue Act of 1913 related to professional football leagues had both antitrust and tax provisions: The antitrust provision was enacted to permit the merger of the National and American Football Leagues to go forward without fear of an antitrust challenge under either

7480-403: The temperature of 1 litre of water from room temperature to the boiling point with an electric kettle takes about 0.1 kWh. A 12 watt LED lamp lit constantly uses about 0.3 kW⋅h per 24 hours and about 9 kWh per month. In terms of human power , a healthy adult male manual laborer performs work equal to about half a kilowatt-hour over an eight-hour day. To convert a quantity measured in

7568-432: Was fired on March 4, 2021, for his role in the 2021 power loss incident . The board delivered a 60-day termination notice to Magness, who had been president and CEO since 2016. The board said he would serve in those roles for the next two months. In 2023, Texas's energy landscape saw significant growth in solar capacity, notably on the ERCOT grid, with solar installations, including those with storage, increasing by 35% from

7656-858: Was not generally required from an exempt organization accruing less than $ 25,000 in gross income yearly. Since 2008, most organizations whose annual gross receipts are less than $ 50,000 must file an annual information return known as Form 990-N . Form 990-N must be submitted electronically using an authorized IRS e-file provider. Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF may be filed either by mail or electronically through an authorized e-file provider. Failure to file required returns such as Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax) may result in fines of up to $ 250,000 per year. Exempt or political organizations, excluding churches or similar religious entities, must make their returns, reports, notices, and exempt applications available for public inspection. The organization's Form 990 (or similar such public record as

7744-417: Was that this was not sufficient. The deregulation of the Texas electricity market occurred in two phases: the wholesale generation market in 1995 and the rest of the sector in 1999. The 1999 deregulation was aimed at counteracting a shortage of generation capacity in the state. Since deregulation, retail providers and power generators were unregulated, although regulations on transmitters continued to control

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