Authority having jurisdiction

The authority having jurisdiction, or AHJ, is the organization, office or person who enforces a code or standard and approves equipment, materials, installations or procedures. Who the AHJ is depends on the place and the purpose. It can be a fire chief, fire marshal, building official, electrical inspector, an insurance representative, or sometimes the property owner. On solar projects the AHJ is usually a city or county inspector who can inspect and approve the design and the construction. The AHJ reviews and approves the drawings, inspects the plant during construction to check that it matches the permit set, and gives the final sign-off before commercial operation. Designers should check for any restrictions set by the utility or the AHJ early in a project. When deciding whether to accept equipment, the AHJ may rely on compliance with recognized standards or on listing and labeling by a product evaluation organization. More than one AHJ can cover the same work. For example, a building official and an inspector of wires can each be responsible for different parts of one installation.

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• sentence 3: support check: partial - u3 gives city or county inspectors as examples with the right to inspect and approve design and construction, but it does not say they are usually the AHJ, and nothing ties this to solar projects specifically.
• sentence 5: support check: partial - u2 lists confirming utility/AHJ restrictions as a checklist item, but it does not say designers should do this early in a project. -->