- Murray City Power crew helped electrify Navajo Nation homes in April 2025.
- The Light Up Navajo program aims to provide power to 9,300 families.
- Murray is among 44 utilities participating in the humanitarian initiative in 2026.
SHIPROCK, New Mexico — At the intersection of volunteerism and humanity is an effort to bring light to the homes of people living on the Navajo Nation.
Last month, a crew from Murray City Power traveled a part of the reservation in northern New Mexico to electrify homes as part of the Navajo Nation's Light Up Navajo mutual-aid program. It marked the fifth time they rendered assistance.
The initiative began in 2019 to extend electricity to families without access to utilities. Cities from across the country, including Utah, have taken part in the effort each year — except in 2020 and 2021 when organizers canceled it due to COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's life-changing — things that we take for granted here every day, you know, we just walk in the house and flip a switch; they don't have that," said Eric Bracewell, operations manager at Murray City Power.
According to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, of the roughly 65,000 homes on the reservation, about 16% lack electricity. That represents more than 9,300 Navajo Nation families.
In 2025, the effort provided power and light to 200 Navajo Nation households that had waited years for electricity, according to officials at the operation.
"For these families, turning on a light in their homes for the very first time is a moment of immense relief, and positive dramatic change," a statement from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority reads.
Five crew members from the Murray-based crew spent a week in April installing dozens of power poles, stringing electrical wire, framing transformers, among other efforts to get electricity to three homes in the Shiprock and Red Mesa communities, according to Bracewell.
"It's very humbling," he told KSL. "To see (in) this day and age, that they're citizens of a great nation that don't have power — to see how they're living with the bare minimum — is something that, it just has to be seen to really understand it."
Bracewell recounted speaking to an elder of the community who detailed just how much the effort means to the people living on the reservation.
"She said, 'For you linemen, this is just another day at work, but for us customers that are finally getting this, this is life-altering,'" he recalled.
The woman explained the challenges children face when trying to do their homework in the dark — and expressed gratitude knowing they'll have access to lights and other necessities to complete their schoolwork.
"It's really heart-wrenching to hear some of these people's stories," Bracewell said.
Murray is one of 44 utility companies volunteering in the initiative, which will continue over the next several months.
A crew from Provo Power also recently returned from a week on the Navajo Nation, where they connected several homes who'd never had power, according to the city's Facebook page.
Light Up Navajo was started by the American Public Power Association and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority with the belief that every family deserves electricity.
Since the beginning of the humanitarian effort, more than 800 families no longer have to go without power and light.
Bracewell said he's grateful to city leaders and officials in Murray for supporting the utility's participation in the initiative each year.
Not only does the Light Up Navajo effort help spark light and hope for people living on the reservation, but it also aids in strengthening skills in utility crew members.
"It's a great training tool for our apprentices that have never been out there and done that kind of work," he said. "But it's also just great work altogether; it makes you feel alive and just appreciate what you have more, being a part of that."
