Powering Navajo Nation: Featuring Benjamin Charley, Journeyman Lineworker for the NTUA

The Light Up Navajo program, which is organized by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) and the American Public Power Association (APPA), brings first-time electricity to homes on Navajo Nation. Lineworkers from across the country volunteer for one to two weeks each year to set poles and string lines as part of the humanitarian project. 

This episode features guest Benjamin Charley, a journeyman lineworker who has worked for the NTUA for the last 17 years. When volunteer line crews come to Navajo Nation, he often shows them how to use pressure diggers to set poles in the rocky terrain. He invites lineworkers to join the project and help to power more homes on Navajo Nation in the future.

To learn more about this project, you can listen to the narrated version of the article, "Mutual Aid Without a Storm," from T&D World's Lineworker Supplement.  You can also hear from two of the volunteer lineworkers who spent time on Navajo Nation: Arthur William Muñoz and Dean Frescholz, both section supervisors for Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona. Lineworkers, thanks for all you do to not only power your own communities, but to support Light Up Navajo!