CERC is finding its room for decision-making limited by govt orders

The catch is that it sharply whittles the role of the CERC and state-level regulators

The hot Indian summers have often been a difficult time for power sector mandarins as the stress rises in the system to balance surging demand with supply. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). The electricity regulator’s chief Jishnu Barua has just received a strongly-worded note dated May 8 from the power ministry asking the Commission to take government approval before making any regulations public. 

Barua has been in the job for just over two months (he joined in March this year). He arrived after the CERC had been without a chairman for eight