SRP crews connect 13 Western Navajo homes to power
Submitted | Salt River Project
Salt River Project crews stand with residents outside a home after electricity was connected through the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s Light Up Navajo initiative.
WINDOW ROCK
Thirteen families in Western Navajo were connected to electricity this spring after Salt River Project crews spent two weeks installing poles, transformers and wire through the Light Up Navajo VII initiative.
SRP sent 19 employees to the Navajo Nation for the project, which brought together 53 utility companies from 24 states. The crews worked 3,753 combined hours to install 108 primary poles, 25 secondary poles, 10 transformers and 91,866 feet of wire.
With support from participating utilities, Light Up Navajo VII is expected to extend electricity to at least 300 homes by the end of August.
Light Up Navajo began in 2019 through a partnership between the American Public Power Association and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. The initiative connects homes in the Nation that still lack electricity.
“This year, we worked in very different terrain with sand almost everywhere,” SRP lineman Thomas Gerbig said. “Even with four-wheel drive vehicles, we often got stuck so we relied on an NTUA tractor with tracks for part of our work. Digging a single pole hole could take nearly an hour, compared to about 15 minutes in the city.
“I would come back every year to work on this project,” he added. “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.”
To read the full article, please see the May 21, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow