WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE CO-OP

FROM ENGINEERING...

The existing Milford Substation transformer moved to our West Alexandria Substation in April. West Alexandria Substation's transformer was the “sister” transformer to Tolbert Substation's transformer that failed in 2020 and was showing signs of deterioration. The old transformer was scheduled to be removed from service to accommodate an increase in capacity at Milford Substation.

The new transformer was delivered to Milford Substation May 11. An upgrade of the Milford Substation from a 10/12.5 MVA capacity to a 12/16/20 MVA capacity has been planned for several years and was funded in the 2018-2021 Construction Work Plan.

Replacement of some of the relays at Wesley, Huston, and Ross substations will be completed by the end of May. These replacements are due to performance issues with existing relays and will improve the reliability of our equipment protection at these locations.

Security improvements at substations will include additional transformer monitoring and reporting capability. Substation transformers are the most expensive, and require the longest lead time to purchase, of any of our equipment. This project will result in additional protection from catastrophic damage that could result from vandalism.

IN MEMBER SERVICES...

Butler Rural Electric Cooperative awarded $23,500 in scholarships to children of members who are high school students. Scholarship recipients were announced in the May issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.

Manager of Communications and Marketing Jade Guthrie attended NRECA'S Connect Conference in Jacksonville, Florida in May. Connect is the annual conference for co-op communications, marketing, and member services professionals to learn and network through interactive breakouts and informative, inspiring general sessions.

The cooperative is sending eight delegates on the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour trip to Washington, D.C., June 17 through 23. These delegates will be

Continued on next page

In April, Riley Salyers accepted a new position as our warehouse clerk. In his new role, Riley will be responsible for maintaining our grounds, facilities, line materials, and equipment and will receive, store, issue, and monitor all inventory.

Riley Salyers WAREHOUSE CLERK

Riley has been with Butler Rural Electric Cooperative for three years. Before joining the cooperative, Riley worked pouring concrete and at Eaton Hometown Furniture. In his free time, Riley enjoys hunting, working on his house, and spending time with friends.

Congratulations, Riley!

What's happening at the co-op

Continued from previous page announced in the June issue of Ohio Cooperative Living and will attend a Youth Tour Orientation at our office May 18 from 6 to 7 p.m.

Spring Community Connection grant recipients are on our website at butlerrural.coop > Community > Community Outreach > Community Connection > Community Connection Grant Recipients and are in the May issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.

Jade Guthrie is attending a Farm Science Review committee meeting at Ohio's Electric Cooperatives' office June 7. Jade is the committee's secretary. If you're interested in volunteering at the Farm Science Review September 19, 20, or 21, please speak with Jade or your supervisor.

FROM IT...

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) is here! NISC has partnered with Duo Security, which provides a multifactor authentication app, to help make our environment more secure. We have started the process of rolling out MFA to our servers and VPN users. Our next applications will be for our windows and cloud environments, followed by email. This will eventually affect all employees. Duo has an app to allow access to these applications.

Once the Duo app is installed, when you log in to your PC, a prompt will be pushed to your device to approve your login. Once you tap approve, your PC will be authenticated for 7 days. After the 7 day period, you will need to authenticate again. For the Duo app to work, your device must be screen locked with a passcode, pattern, or biometric authentication.

Why MFA? Usernames and passwords are important but are vulnerable to brute force attacks. Multifactor authentication allows users to identify themselves by more than just username and password. This enhances the security of member and employee information. MFA also brings us into compliance with our cybersecurity insurance. As cyber attacks have become more common and more advanced, cyber insurance has become more complex with more stringent requirements. Multifactor authentication is a requirement for us to maintain our cyber insurance.

We plan to roll out the next phase by department. Laura will be meeting with each department individually to discuss how this works, what needs to be installed and to answer any questions you may have.

Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30