Alabama Utility Crews Head to Navajo Nation to Restore Power in Chinle

More than 10,000 families on the Navajo Nation still live without electricity, and for one week this April, 10 lineworkers from Riviera Utilities in Baldwin County, Alabama are trying to shrink that number in Chinle.

The crew departed Alabama on April 10 as part of Light Up Navajo, a mutual aid initiative run through the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and the American Public Power Association. Field work in the Chinle area runs through April 17, with the team returning to Alabama by April 19.

The program has connected hundreds of homes to the grid since its 2019 launch, including more than 170 homes in 2024 alone. In 2025, 44 outside utility companies traveled to the Navajo Nation and worked alongside NTUA electric crews to extend power to at least 200 homes between April and August.

For Chinle-area families still off the grid, the absence of power shapes almost every part of daily life. Residents without electricity must travel long distances to obtain water, rely on generators or ice chests to preserve food, and go without consistent lighting or the ability to charge medical equipment. Children doing homework after dark, families running small businesses, and elders managing medical conditions are all affected by a gap in infrastructure that most of the country stopped thinking about decades ago.

Light Up Navajo is a mutual aid training project launched in 2019 to connect homes under an expedited time frame. Each year, outside utilities send their electric crews to the Navajo Nation to help connect homes and extend powerlines. Visiting crews work exclusively on pre-approved, shovel-ready sites, meaning NTUA has already secured the necessary permits and land access before out-of-state workers arrive. The visiting teams work directly alongside NTUA lineworkers, with energization and safety checks handled by NTUA staff.

"The visiting volunteer line workers signed up to travel here to help make a life changing difference for families," said NTUA General Manager Walter W. Haase.

Families in the Chinle area hoping to be considered for future deployments can start the process through NTUA directly. Residents submit a basic inquiry form through NTUA's website, after which NTUA follows up with an email and contacts the respective District Office. A Customer Care Agent then reaches out to the household. The NTUA Chinle District office is located at P.O. Box 549, Chinle, AZ 86503. NTUA's Light Up Navajo program page at ntua.com includes the inquiry form and additional eligibility information.

The Navajo Nation, covering a 27,000-square-mile area across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, is estimated to require more than a billion dollars to connect all remaining homes to the grid. Programs like Light Up Navajo represent one of the few mechanisms actively narrowing that gap, one shovel-ready worksite at a time.