In yet another push for granting open access to all electricity consumers with power requirement of 1 Mw and above, the power ministry, exercising its power under section 107 of the Electricity Act, 2003, has issued directives to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) stating that regulators have no jurisdiction to decide energy charges for such consumers.

The ministry resorted to this move after it observed that regulators had not taken seriously its letter of November 30, 2011, in this regard, and instead have either determined the energy charges or are in the process of determining the charges.