Ken’s TOP 5 Information Pivot Points of Week 41

1. Electric Net News Update: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Smart Grid Upgrades Continue To Improve Service And Expand Benefits For Customers. Report Outlines Utility’s Progress in Modernizing the Electric Grid. San Francisco, CA /PRNewswire/ – Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today provided an update to state regulators showing the utility’s progress on its Smart Grid plan for modernizing the electric grid to improve safety and reliability while delivering a host of energy and cost savings to customers. The report also describes how new and future Smart Grid projects enable the grid to accommodate new technologies that benefit customers. By integrating a wide range of advanced communications, computing, sensing and control technologies on its electric grid throughout Northern and Central California, PG&E is able to provide customers with more control of their energy bill while enabling the company to more quickly respond to outages and service requests. SOURCE: Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

2. Post by Lynxspring’s Marc Petock: To help deal with cyber threats, the National Institute of Building Sciences has prepared a WBDG Whole Building Design Guide. Great reference and Cybersecurity treatise written by Michael Chipley PhD, PMP, LEED AP, The PMC Group LLC provides an ominous summary of recent malware attacks.

3. Social Media Expert Mike Crosson, Moderator and Publisher, provided the LinkedIn Social Media Marketing Group with two exceptionally great social media links. Visit: Marketo and SocialMediopolis for ways to improve your inbound channels!

4. Smart Planet’s best and worst countries for older people. In just four decades, one-fifth of the world’s population—or more than 2 billion people—will be aged 60 or over. Some countries—and not just the wealthiest ones—have done a better job preparing for the spike in the number of older people, according to Global AgeWatch Index. Global AgeWatch Index ranked countries by how well their aging populations are doing based on income security, health status, employment and education and enabling environment, a category that includes civic freedom, access to public transport, physical safety and social connections. The index issues scores to show how near a country is to the ideal value of 100. The higher the value, the better older people fare. Older people are faring the best in Nordic, Western European, North American and some East Asian and Latin American countries. Sweden is the best place for older people. Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada round out the top five. The United States comes in eighth place.

5. John Petze joins CoR Advisors Webcast: Using Data and Analytics to Reduce Operational Costs Using Data and Analytics to Reduce Operational Costs: Data, data, data. In order to run efficient buildings, owners and managers need real time operational data, not just last month’s electric bill. Real time data provides information needed to identify problems, patterns, deviations, faults, and inefficiencies from literally thousands of points in a building. This visibility allows the building operator to make immediate improvements and capture cost savings that would otherwise go unnoticed. This session will discuss how to apply operational data and analytics to existing building systems for maximum efficiency and savings. Register for the Friday, October 25, 2013, 12:30-2:00 p.m. EDT.