Norwich — When Norwich Public Utilities crews leave town for mutual aid assignments out of state, it’s usually in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes or other natural disaster.

But veteran NPU linemen John Benoit and Will Maxeiner flew out of Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks on Saturday, each with a 70-pound pack of climbing gear and hand tools, and expect to meet up Sunday with engineers and coordinators from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

NPU is among four dozen American Public Power Association member utilities from 10 different states to participate in Light Up Navajo, a multiyear effort to bring electric power to some 14,000 homes in the expansive 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation, about the size of West Virginia. For comparison, Connecticut is 5,543 square miles.

The Navajo homes, spread out in the rural, flat, arid land have never been hooked up to an electric grid and rely on ice chests, hand-carted water and frequent drives to grocery stores for fresh food. Solar panels have proven ineffective, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said, because of strong winds and blowing sand that covers the panels.

Families signed up for the electrification project, and as the mutual aid crews prepare to erect poles and string wires, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority wires the homes and gets them ready.

Once connected, the crews who worked to bring the lines to each home, “will see the lights turned on,” said Eric McDermott, NPU electric operations integrity manager.

In a news release dated Friday, NTUA General Manager Walter Haase said the partnership with APPA utilities embodies “the true American spirit” of cooperation. In 2019, the first year of the program, 230 homes were electrified. COVID-19 canceled mutual aid for Light Up Navajo II in 2020, but the tribe used funds from CARES Act pandemic aid to connect 330 homes and prepared other homes to receive electricity.

In 2021, the Navajo utility obtained permits, secured rights of way from property owners and wired homes to get ready for the 2022 push, called Light Up Navajo III.

“We are grateful that outside communities are sending their electric crews to help,” Haase said in the news release. “These visiting crews are ready to help build and will be ready to celebrate with Light Up Navajo III families after they get connected. The project will not only make a positive life changing impact on our families, but also powerful impression on the line workers and their communities who proudly volunteer their services.”

Maxeiner, 37, of Griswold said he had visited Arizona when he was about 10 years old, while Benoit, 50, of Montville had never been there. The two NPU linemen will spend two weeks on the ground, working with other mutual aid crews and the Navajo utility to erect poles and run lines. Because the desert ground is somewhat unstable, the two will spend a lot of time climbing the new poles to run wires, rather than using the bucket trucks commonly seen on Norwich streets.

Maxeiner and Benoit volunteered back in 2019 for the project, after NPU General Manager Chris LaRose returned from a trip to Fort Defiance in the Navajo Nation in 2018 with about 25 other New England Public Power Association representatives to explore whether NPU should join the effort.

“They had the Navajo utilities power up a house and we got to see one going up,” LaRose said of his 2018 trip. “It was life-changing for that family. The hours of day of manual tasks, just keeping your food fresh.”

McDermott asked NPU line crews for volunteers willing to go, and Maxeiner and Benoit were the first to sign up.

Maxeiner said that was before his second child, now 4 months old, was born. The mother of his wife, Lauren, will stay with her and help with the two children, the oldest being 2½ years old. Benoit and his wife, Amy, have two adult children.

NPU will continue to cover their pay based on their current contract provisions — time-and-a-half after eight hours, double time on Sundays, limit of 16 hours per day — and travel costs. NTUA will cover their meals and lodging.

The most recent Light Up Navajo efforts got underway the first week of April and will run through July, resuming in fall after the summer's intense desert heat subsides. Crews from throughout the nation will rotate in and out of the program every two weeks. NPU does not plan to send additional crews this year, but LaRose said based on Maxeiner’s and Benoit’s experience, the utility might consider it again.

“It might be something we do annually,” LaRose said. “It’s going to be quite a few years before they get this project completed.”

c.bessette@theday.com