Page 42 - European Energy Innovation - Summer 2016 publication

42 Summer 2016 European Energy Innovation
INTERNET OF THINGS
are already using (cool) devices like
activity trackers, smart thermostat,
drones, but the industrial IoT requires
far many conditions to be fulfilled
before it can widely use IoT tools:
reliability is one of them. A connectivity
failure between a smart thermostat and
a boiler at home or between process
control sensors in the steel industry
do not have the same consequences.
Others issues like secure authentication,
standardisation, interoperability,
liability need to be properly addressed.
Data ownership, data location, data
protection will also require action at
EU level. The Commission is putting
forward a set of ideas and proposals
to guide this implementation forward,
through notably a Staff Working
Document on Advancing the Internet of
Things in Europe.
BREAKING SILOS AND DEVELOPING
A THRIVING ECO-SYSTEM
One of the key challenges is to make
sure that IoT can be developed
on a pan-European basis. IoT
requires breaking silos and avoiding
fragmentation between industrial
application areas, between standards,
between regions, which prevents the
full IoT vision to be realised as a new
cross-cutting business reality. An IoT
policy has to address specific policy
challenges linked to a harmonised
digital single market, notably to
interoperability, ubiquity, end-to-end
security and trust.
Actions at EU level already identified
and mapped the most promising
clusters across Europe, where IoT
1 More details at: http://smartcity.bcn.cat/en/growsmarter.html
2 IDC and TXT Solutions (2014), SMART 2013/0037 Cloud and IoT combination, study for the European Document on IoT.
Commission.
is developing: the Commission will
launch in 2016 large scale pilots with
the aim to create ecosystems and
to overcome the fragmentation of
vertically-oriented closed systems.
One example of an open service
platform is FIWARE, supported through
the Future Internet Public Private
Partnership. The recently launched
open FIWARE Foundation further
develops FIWARE components in
the context of digitising industries,
starting with three business sectors
domains: Smart City, Industry 4.0 and
Smart Agriculture. We have therefore
an opportunity to smartly build on
existing open service platforms, such as
FIWARE, for accelerating the industrial
use of open digital platforms and
reinforcing innovation ecosystems.
The Commission also launched
the Alliance for Internet of Things
Innovation (AIOTI): it offers a series
of opportunities for stakeholders
from various origins to establish links
towards horizontal platforms, standards
and ecosystems and to collaborate in
experimenting new IoT solutions. This
will help the development of a thriving
IoT innovation ecosystem in Europe.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that everyone
should wake up to the potential of the
Internet of Things to transform our lives
and improve the way we use resources,
including energy. We cannot miss the
opportunity of making Europe the
world leading market for the IoT and
this means significant opportunities for
the energy sector too. l
Mário Campolargo is Director
for “Net Futures” department
of European Commission,
DG CONNECT, dealing with
policy development and research
supporting the Digital Single Market
from the angles of 5G networks,
IoT, cloud and data flows and
conceptualising new and innovative
approaches towards service
platforms and next generation
internet.
Previously he has been Director
for “Emerging Technologies and
Infrastructures” in DG INFSO in
charge of Future and Emerging
Technologies, ICT based
infrastructures for science and ICT
trust and security, experimental
facilities and experimentally driven
research for Future Internet.
Before joining the European
Commission in 1990, he worked
for 12 years in the R&D Centre of
Portugal Telecom as a researcher
and manager. He holds a Degree
in Electrical Engineering from
University of Coimbra, a Master
of Science in Computing Science
from Imperial College London, a
Post graduate in Management from
Solvay Business School Brussels and
a European Studies Diploma from
Université Catholique de Louvain-la-
Neuve.
Disclaimer: This paper expresses
the personal views of the author
and in no way constitutes a formal/
official position of the European
Commission
Full version of a Staff Working
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-
market/en/news/staff-working-
document-advancing-internet-
things-europe
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu