US Department of State Invests in Global IoT Energy Initiative

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3Q 2016 | IN-4128

On June 20, 2016, C3 IoT announced that the US Department of State awarded them a multi-year US$25 million contract to use C3 IoT’s enterprise application development platform for energy management and predictive analytics. C3 IoT, formerly C3 Energy, was founded in 2009 and delivers enterprise software solutions for the energy industry. Earlier in the week, Nextgov reported that the US federal government spent nearly US$9 billion on IoT in 2015, 20% more than in 2014. Despite this level of investment, the C3 IoT contract is the federal government’s first enterprise-wide contract of its type, with most federal IoT initiatives being defense related.

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More (Efficient) Power

NEWS


On June 20, 2016, C3 IoT announced that the US Department of State awarded them a multi-year US$25 million contract to use C3 IoT’s enterprise application development platform for energy management and predictive analytics. C3 IoT, formerly C3 Energy, was founded in 2009 and delivers enterprise software solutions for the energy industry. Earlier in the week, Nextgov reported that the US federal government spent nearly US$9 billion on IoT in 2015, 20% more than in 2014. Despite this level of investment, the C3 IoT contract is the federal government’s first enterprise-wide contract of its type, with most federal IoT initiatives being defense related.  

National Initiative, Global Impact

IMPACT


The initiative will allow the State Department to gain real-time insight from data generated across systems and sensors from the more than 22,000 department facilities in over 190 countries. These insights will allow the State Department to monitor asset health and to perform predictive analytics to avoid failure of mission critical equipment. Landon Van Dyke, Senior Advisor of Energy, Environment, and Sustainability at the State Department, states that the data will allow the department to "identify and address outliers," "improve upon previous embassy designs and operations," and "lower utility and maintenance costs while greatly reducing [their] energy and environmental footprint." C3 IoT will deploy its platform and software applications using Amazon Web Services’ AWS GovCloud, designed to hold sensitive data in compliance with US government regulations. This initiative will hopefully drive operational efficiencies across the department and result in taxpayer savings.  

Catching Up

COMMENTARY


IoT initiatives for the public sector are not a new occurrence. While this contract is the first of its kind for the US federal government, other countries have had similar investments. The value propositions behind these public sector IoT investments greatly mirror those in the private sector, such as increased employee productivity, reduction in costs, and new revenue generation opportunities. While private sector IoT projects can enhance the customer experience, public sector projects are designed with enhancing the citizen experience. Despite these benefits, the United States lagged behind the rest of the world in federal investment. The United States Senate passed the Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act in April 2016, which seeks to establish a working group tasked with identifying proposals to drive IoT growth, but the European Union had its own IoT Expert Group from 2010-2012 and released its conclusions in 2013. Countries like India and China also launched substantial smart city initiatives in recent years, but IoT investment in the US is a bit more sporadic.  

The lack of initiative from the US federal government stems from a desire to let IoT develop freely and openly and to not impose any laws or regulations that would inhibit the natural growth of the market or stifle innovation.  Legislative bodies and other public officials in the United States do not want to inhibit the growth of a technology that is poised to impact nearly every commercial segment and industry. Despite good intentions, this caution has led to much uncertainty around both public and private IoT initiatives in the United States. There is a rather fine line between not imposing unnecessary laws and regulations and taking the necessary steps to provide a market with the opportunity to grow and to improve the lives of its citizens through smart city and other initiatives. This contract is a step in the right direction for the US federal government, but they still have a lot of catch up to do to make sure they do not fall further behind.   

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