CHEC Hot Watts October 2021

Published monthly by Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc.

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OCTOBER 2021

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WATTS WATTS INSIDE >> page 2

Scheduled outage of Liberty substation in October >> page 3

Energy Efficiency Tip of the Month >> page 4

CHEC crews assist Louisiana co-ops in Hurricane Ida recovery

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Join us for the 73rd Annual Meeting Oct. 2 The 73rd Annual Meeting of Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative will take place Saturday, Oct. 2 in the Sallisaw High School parking lot. Members may enter from the east on West Ruth Avenue and turn north onto J.T. Stites Blvd, then drive through the designated meeting area as directed by a CHEC employee.

Members may arrive and register anytime between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

With the health and safety of our members and staff being our top

priority, this year’s meeting will be conducted in a drive-thru format.

Simply put, you will be able to attend the meeting while remaining in your vehicle as you proceed in a designated line through the parking area. Please note that wait times may be significant in length.

If you or passengers in your vehicle have medical conditions, or continued on page 3 >>

Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. Headquarters Office PO Box 539 • 1002 E. Main Stigler, OK 74462 • 800-328-2368 Branch Office PO Box 587 • 1800 KOA/Power Drive Sallisaw, OK 74955 • 918-775-2211 Pay-by-Phone: 1-888-678-1937 www.cooksonhills.com Alternate Emergency Only: 918-552-0016

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Joe Ogle, President Rocky Woods, Sr., Vice President Ronnie Pevehouse, Sec/Treasurer Dan Callahan, Trustee John Dillard, Trustee Dart Drummonds, Trustee Mike Rose, Trustee

District 6 District 1 District 7 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5

STAFF Juli Orme, General Manager Chris Morris, Chief Financial Officer Mark Blaylock, Director of Operations — Stigler Marty Huff, Director of Operations — Sallisaw Ellen Mattison, Manager of Accounting Services Kristie Cash, Manager of Office Services Rockey Oldham, Manager of Broadband Services Jeremy Stubblefield, Chief Technology Officer Brad Martin, Director of Member/Public Relations and Economic Development Dallin Shaw, Director of Engineering

Russell V. Barber, General Counsel Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. welcomes members to submit photos, and articles which will be subject to editing. Cookson Hills reserves the right to publish or modify any article.

Companies and individuals featured in the Hot Watts newsletter do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or view of Cookson Hills.

Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

If you find your account number hidden in this issue of the Hot Watts, you’ll receive a $25 credit on your electric bill.

bit.ly/CHEConFB (case-sensitive)

2 | October 2021

Scheduled outage of Liberty substation this month We want to notify our members of a planned outage on our system.

The transmission provider that provides power to Substation 14 (Liberty Substation) will be performing maintenance on Substation 14 during the month of October. The maintenance being performed requires the transmission provider to de-energize the entire substation in order to safely perform the work. This means members receiving electric power from Substation 14 will be without power while the work is performed.

All members receiving power from Substation 14 (Liberty Substation) will be included in this outage. The maintenance is expected to take a total of eight hours to complete, which will take place over two consecutive days. This work will be divided up into two separate outages lasting approximately four hours each day.

Maintenance will begin at 9 a.m. on both days with power restoration anticipated to be completed at approximately 1 p.m., however the maintenance could potentially take longer to complete. Please be assured their crews will work as fast as they can to safely complete the work and get power restored. We have scheduled automated phone calls to help notify the members included in the outage. Members can follow us on Facebook and check www.cooksonhills.com for updated information on the outage. We urge members to take measures and plan accordingly during this outage. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding while the transmission provider performs the necessary maintenance to improve system reliability. [788108] Please notice the substation listed above has a number associated with it. These numbers help our employees identify the substation locations. In an effort to improve communications with our members, we have recently added two additional pieces of information to your monthly bill. Beginning with the September billing cycle, members will be able to locate their substation and feeder number on their bills.

This new information allows members to determine if they are included in such things as a scheduled power outage and fiber-to-the-home construction.

Triennial survey continuing through December. Members may receive a phone call or email.

We appreciate your feedback!

Annual Meeting, continued from page 1 find it difficult to spend an extended amount of time in a vehicle, please make preparations accordingly.

“Safety is always our top priority,” said General Manager Juli Orme.

“While we would love to gather with our members and their families as we have typically done in the past, we feel like this format is necessary to help conduct the meeting as safely as possible.”

Be sure to bring your official Annual Meeting notice to the meeting.

You should have received this notice mid-September. The notice will help streamline the registration process and also qualifies members for a $20 credit toward your account.

While we are disappointed that we won’t get to spend time visiting as one big cooperative family this year, we are still excited to see our valued members attend this year’s Annual Meeting in the safety and comfort of your vehicle. [788108] Please call Brad Martin at 800-328-2368 with any questions you may have. We hope to see you there!

Energy Efficiency

Tip of the Month Old, uninsulated and improperly installed exterior doors can waste energy and money.

Shut the door on wasted energy by weather stripping and sealing all exterior doors.

If you have an old exterior door, consider replacing it with a newer, energy efficient model.

Source: energy.gov

www.cooksonhills.com | 3

CHEC crews assist Louisiana co-ops in aftermath of Hurricane Ida Upon Hurricane Ida's landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, Aug. 29, Oklahoma's electric cooperatives promptly stepped up to offer their help. The storm left more than 1 million people in Louisiana without power and about 130,000 in Mississippi before moving on to affect those in the northeast parts of the U.S. CHEC was among seven distribution electric cooperatives in Oklahoma who sent mutual aid assistance crews to assist with restoration efforts in the weeks following the storm's destruction.

Oklahoma co-ops are working under the coordination of the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives and have been assigned to assist sister cooperative DEMCO, based in the East Baton Rouge parish, a hard-hit area. DEMCO is the largest electric cooperative in Louisiana serving more than 113,000 members; its service area is comprised of 8,887 miles of line. As of Aug. 31, DEMCO reported 78,058 outages — nearly 69% of its membership remained without power.

Given the extended nature of the restoration period, line crews are likely to rotate in upcoming weeks, according to Derec Janaway, safety and loss control director for the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives.

According to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Oklahoma’s

Register for updates at cooksonhillsconnect.com

4 | October 2021

electric cooperatives join the mutual aid effort alongside crews from 32 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to the industry standard safety protocols, line crews will follow CDC guidelines in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional safety measures will be put in place to ensure crew members and consumers stay safe during restoration efforts.

CHEC sent 10 of its lineworkers and a variety of trucks and equipment to assist DEMCO. They worked alongside 30 other Oklahoma lineworkers in Louisiana.

“Cooperation among cooperatives is one of the principles that guide electric cooperatives,” says Chris Meyers, general manager of the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives. “We are proud of the co-op crews that are lending a hand in this difficult time to help a sister cooperative. This is the cooperative difference at work.”

Thank you to the following CHEC team members who helped in the restoration efforts: Steven Dodson, Jake Simpson, Jeremy Baker, Austin Poindexter and Scotty Holcomb from Sallisaw (pictured above, left); and Cody Crase, Kent Altstatt, Cody Gray, John Henry Parsons and Nick Worsham from Stigler (pictured above, right).