Tennessee Code Title 7. Consolidated Governments and Local Governmental Functions and Entities § 7-51-2704

(a) Where a utility does not customarily prepare plans and designs for utility infrastructure within a plan of development and requires a customer or customer representative to prepare and submit such plans and designs, the utility shall:

(b) If the utility does not complete the review in accordance with subdivision (a)(2), then the customer or customer representative who submitted the plan or design may hire a third-party plans examiner to review the plans and designs for compliance with all applicable state and federal regulatory requirements, codes, and local requirements.

(c) If a customer or customer representative engages a third-party plans examiner pursuant to subsection (b) in lieu of review by the utility, then the customer or customer representative shall submit the appropriate fee, if such fee was not already submitted, and a stamped and sealed copy of all plans that were examined to the utility and provide:

(d) No later than ten (10) business days after submission of the documents required under subsection (c), the utility shall:

(e) If ten (10) business days pass and the utility fails to take an action as required by subsection (d), then the utility must refund any associated plan review fees that were collected, and the plans are deemed approved by the utility.

(f) If the plan of development is approved after review by a third-party plans examiner and the customer engages an approved contractor to install or construct utility infrastructure, the utility shall perform inspections of the installation and construction of the utility infrastructure in the development.  The utility may also inspect materials and test the utility infrastructure as part of such inspections.  The customer or its approved contractor is responsible for the costs of correcting any deficiencies in the installation and construction, and the utility is not required to accept or commission the utility infrastructure until the utility determines that the installation and construction complies with all applicable requirements under this part.  The utility may charge a reasonable fee for such inspections and testing in accordance with a schedule of fees or charges adopted by the utility and made publicly available.

(g) This section does not apply to the types of plans and designs of utility infrastructure that are customarily prepared by the utility for the customer in accordance with a standard practice that is in effect at the utility as of July 1, 2025, or a policy that is subsequently adopted by the utility.