Glossary
AHJ (authority having jurisdiction)
The AHJ is the local body that reviews and approves an electrical installation — usually a city or county building department in the United States. Requirements differ between neighbouring jurisdictions, which is why permitting software maintains AHJ-specific requirement databases.
Two identical systems a few miles apart can need different plan sets because their AHJs adopted different code editions or local amendments.
This is why permit plan sets are a service more often than software: the variation is handled by people. Aurora publishes an AHJ database of 25,000+ jurisdictions; SolarAPP+ describes itself as “a single portal to hundreds of jurisdictions” without publishing a count.
Why it matters
Permitting cost and delay are driven almost entirely by which AHJ you are dealing with, not by system size.
Products where this is recorded
- SolarAPP+ — Permitting & plan sets
- Symbium — Permitting & plan sets
- Aurora Solar — Design & simulation