SRP crews connect 13 Navajo Nation homes to electricity

More than a dozen families in the western Navajo Nation now have access to electricity following a multiweek effort by Salt River Project crews.

As part of the Light Up Navajo VII initiative, a team of 19 SRP employees worked 3,753 hours over a two-week span this spring to bring power to 13 homes.

The crew faced significant environmental hurdles during the installation process, which required setting 108 primary poles, 25 secondary poles and 10 transformers, alongside stringing nearly 92,000 feet of wire.

“This year, we worked in very different terrain with sand almost everywhere,” Thomas Gerbig, an SRP lineman, said in a news release. “Even with four‑wheel‑drive vehicles, we often got stuck so we relied on an NTUA tractor with tracks for part of our work.”

Gerbig noted that digging a single pole hole in the sandy terrain took nearly an hour, compared to roughly 15 minutes in a metro area like Phoenix.

“The physical and weather challenges we face don’t compare to seeing the smile of someone turning on a light in their home for the first time,” Gerbig added.

Launched in 2019, Light Up Navajo is a humanitarian partnership between the American Public Power Association and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority aimed at electrifying the thousands of homes on the reservation that still lack power.

According to the APPA, about 185,000 Navajo citizens live across the 27,000-square-mile reservation, which spans parts of northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah. Out of approximately 55,000 homes in the region, an estimated 9,377 do not have electricity. The NTUA says this total represents nearly 70% of all U.S. households currently living without power.

For residents like Elysia Yazzie, the utility connection fulfills a long-held goal.

“Ten years ago, I had a dream of moving back to the reservation and building a place for my kids in the place where I grew up and the hills I played on,” Yazzie said. “Electricity will make our lives easier, and our dreams come true.”

This year’s broader Light Up Navajo initiative brought together 53 utility companies from 24 states. With their collective support, the program aims to extend electricity to at least 300 homes by the end of August.

To date, SRP’s involvement in the program has resulted in the installation of 1,095 wood poles and more than 603,000 feet of wire, connecting 159 families to the power grid for the first time.
SRP crews are scheduled to return to the Navajo Nation this fall to continue electrification efforts.

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