Federal agencies are moving to standardize how energy management data flows across multi-building campuses. The General Services Administration (GSA) is embedding open-format interoperability requirements directly into procurement contracts - a shift set to reshape how EMS vendors, system integrators, and facility managers design and deliver building automation infrastructure.
Background
The push draws on a layered policy foundation. The OPEN Government Data Act, reinforced by OMB Memorandum M-25-05 (2025), advances open data access, governance, and security across federal agencies. Under this framework, GSA's Evidence-Based Data Governance Executive (EDGE) Board developed standard open data procurement language for contracts, mandating the use of open formats at the point of data acquisition from external vendors and systems, according to GSA's published Open Data Plan. By requiring that all procured systems output data holdings in an open format, GSA ensures any data collected or stored within those systems is natively accessible in a non-proprietary, standardized format. The agency states explicitly that this prevents vendor lock-in to closed systems - a long-standing barrier to portfolio-wide energy visibility.
The scope of federal EMIS is broad. According to the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the EMIS data scope includes utility bills, weather data, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), building automation systems (BAS), utility control systems, distributed energy resources (DERs), IoT devices, electric vehicle charging stations, and geographic information systems. Integration components within the EMIS stack manage communication between all data sources and a historian, which stores time-series data and associated metadata in one or more databases, making standardized, queryable data outputs a prerequisite for cross-agency and cross-campus coordination.
Details
The procurement signal to the market is now embedded in contract language. GSA's EDGE Board assigned open data responsibilities to Staff and Service Office Data Evidence Governance Boards in April 2025, moving open-format compliance upstream in the data lifecycle. These governance bodies now ensure new data initiatives consider open format requirements from inception and existing collection methods are reviewed and adjusted to align with open format standards, per GSA's Open Data Plan.
On the vendor-facing side, GSA's proposed contract clause for technology systems - currently under review - goes further. It specifies that all system data outputs and custom developments must use open and standard formats and APIs, and the clause prohibits proprietary technologies that would require additional licensing or create dependencies, according to analysis by Holland & Knight. Contractors must also provide tools that allow the government to export all data in open, machine-readable formats such as JSON or XML, ensuring data can be fully reconstructed in an alternative system.
For energy managers, the interoperability requirements directly enable more precise demand response execution. FEMP guidance describes how elements of an EMIS work together to aggregate facility data and help federal energy managers optimize energy use at the building, campus, or agency level. When DER assets - from on-site generation to battery storage - operate under standardized data schemas accessible across building-level controls and central plant systems, real-time load coordination becomes operationally viable rather than a manual process.
Cybersecurity obligations accompany the interoperability push. GSA cybersecurity mandates now include stronger security measures aligned with Zero Trust strategies as a condition of federal contract compliance, according to GSA Schedule guidance. Federal EMIS deployments already reference the FISMA Risk Management Framework and NIST SP 800-53 controls for connected systems including AMI and BAS, as outlined in existing FEMP procurement guidance.
Performance-based contracting also stands to benefit. FEMP guidance recommends incorporating EMIS within Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs), which allow cost savings generated by advanced system optimizations - including supervisory control and automated fault detection - to finance the deployments. Standardized, machine-readable energy data strengthens the measurement and verification processes central to those contract structures.
Outlook
Pilot deployments are expected to transition into broader portfolio-level rollouts over the next 12 to 18 months, aligned with the federal fiscal year 2026 technology modernization timeline. EMS vendors lacking open API architectures and non-proprietary data export capabilities face mounting barriers to federal contract eligibility. System integrators working on federal campuses should verify that existing and planned deployments conform to GSA open data procurement language and the FISMA-aligned cybersecurity baselines now required across connected building systems. For further context on federal EMIS deployment practices, see our earlier coverage of how agencies are accelerating EMIS adoption across portfolios.
