Energy Dozen

My Path from Engineering to Energy Policy: Ashwini Chitnis

Ashwini Chitnis , Program Head – Clean Energy Supply – WRI India

Article

Mar 11, 2025

Brush with the Glass Ceiling 

My first encounter with the electrical industry came as a shock. During my final interview at a reputed switchgear manufacturing company in Nashik in 2002, the unit manager bluntly stated that he avoided hiring women engineers, citing marriage and motherhood as career interruptions. Despite being qualified, my sharp retaliation to this blatant discrimination cost me the position. While this experience initially stung, it ultimately set me on a path to redefine my professional journey on my own terms. 

From Programming to Policy: An Unconventional Power Trip 

As a fresh engineer starting her career, I wanted to work in the field of electrical design. However, when I graduated in 2002, the economy was recovering from a major recession, and jobs were hard to find. After being turned down from the electrical industry, I turned to the IT service industry, which was welcoming fresh graduates with promising careers. My eagerness to be financially independent trumped my desire for a career in electrical design, and I started working as a software engineer. Unlike the electrical industry, the IT job was well-paying and only five days a week! I wasn’t complaining. My work involved updating and maintaining decades-old programs written in COBOL and run on mainframe computers. 

While my IT job helped me achieve financial independence, it was not intellectually satisfying, and soon, I was bored. Six years into the IT service industry, I started looking for an alternative that would be more enjoyable for me. Serendipitously, I learned about the Prayas (Energy Group) through a common friend. I approached Girish Sant, then the group’s coordinator, to explore the possibility of working at Prayas. He and Shantanu Dixit shared some ideas about how I could contribute. I wanted to do socially relevant work when I quit the IT industry. In my imagination, this involved working in sectors such as education, health or rural development. I could not immediately see how the work on electricity regulation might be aligned with this broad objective. I knew nothing about policy or regulatory research and its role in furthering public interest. But I took Girish’s words at face value and decided to try it, hoping I would at least learn something new. Little did I know how this leap of faith would change the course of my life and career. Thus began my wondrous journey into the rabbit hole of energy policy and regulation, which continues to be fascinating, even bewildering at times, but never dull. 

Finding Purpose in Energy Policy 

When I joined Prayas in 2008, I was ignorant of the electricity sector’s institutional framework and its multifaceted challenges. As such, my learning curve was steep. I owe it to my colleagues and mentors, who patiently answered my numerous (often naïve and silly) questions and helped me make sense of the sector’s complexities and paradoxes. This was also the period when the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) undertook some interesting and bold experiments, such as the state-wide load-shedding protocol and the zero-load-shedding model in some cities. MERC had appointed authorised consumer representatives, and Prayas was one of them. The consumer representatives were party to all the matters before the Commission. As a Prayas representative, I had the opportunity to attend hearings concerning wide-ranging issues. This exposure gave me a ring-side view of Maharashtra’s power sector developments while going deep into a few specific issues that we, as a group, chose to engage further on.  

In those days, the regulatory processes in Maharashtra were quite open and participatory, allowing all stakeholders to voice their suggestions and objections freely. Petitioners, respondents, representatives from the utilities, lawyers, consultants, regulatory staff and consumer representatives freely exchanged ideas and passionately debated various issues. It was a golden opportunity for a newcomer like me to learn about the nitty-gritty of the sector’s functioning and forge friendships with people from varied backgrounds whom I might have otherwise never had a chance to know. 

Building Expertise Through Further Education 

Through my work on the regulatory processes concerning distribution and generation companies, I gradually understood the sector’s capital-intensive nature and the massive extent of public money at stake. I realised how even small efficiency improvements could free up significant resources for more meaningful public expenditures. I learnt that effective engagement with the regulatory process needed a good understanding of not just the engineering issues but also of law and economics. Hence, in 2009, I enrolled in the MA Economics program at Savitribai Phule Pune University (then Pune University) as an external student. Managing the coursework and exams, along with a young child and a full-time job that entailed frequent travel, was stressful, to say the least. I remember missing a few exams because they clashed with a significant hearing, or an urgent meeting called by the Ministry or the CEA. While these interruptions prolonged my course duration, I am glad that I persevered and completed it in 2012. Someday, I hope to learn more about Indian law. 

Impact Through Analysis 

My work on rural electrification and ensuring affordable and reliable electricity access for all made me aware of the far-reaching implications it could have on ordinary people’s lives. Most important was the gradual but firm understanding that democratising the sector’s decision-making processes is the key to achieving a healthier, just, and sustainable energy future for all. All along my journey, collaborating and interacting with people from various civil society organisations and learning from their work across diverse areas has been a very satisfying and enriching experience.  

Apart from being part of Maharashtra’s regulatory process, another defining characteristic of my stint at Prayas was the opportunity to analyse, review and critique many sector developments before they became mainstream issues. For instance, I was part of the following pioneering studies that shaped sector discourse: 

  • Many Sparks but Little Light, a book that critically examines the various reforms undertaken in the energy sector since the 1990s and their impacts, and offers suggestions for improving the design and implementation of further reforms. 

In all these studies, the goal was not just to highlight the issues and shortcomings of the existing model but also to provide solutions that could be implemented within the constraints of the prevailing legal and regulatory framework. The aim was always to translate the analysis and findings into actionable policy and regulatory interventions. Following are a few examples of such crucial interventions: 

Present and The Future 

I left Prayas in March 2020 and worked as an independent researcher, collaborating with organisations like Manthan Adhyayan Kendra and LIFE. This was a very enjoyable and enriching experience. With Manthan, I jointly undertook a few crucial policy interventions related to large hydropower projects. I wanted to work on issues at the intersection of energy and environmental regulation. Unfortunately, things did not pan out as I had hoped. In 2023, I joined CSEP as a visiting fellow. Here, I undertook in-depth analyses of some of the distribution sector’s key challenges in the context of the ongoing energy transition. I worked on franchisees, resource adequacy framework, the soon-to-be-published analysis and review of Odisha’s second round of distribution privatisation, and a review of the financial health issues of Delhi’s discoms. 

I am delighted to start 2025 by opening a new chapter in my professional journey as the Head of the Clean Energy Supply Program at WRI, India. In my new role, I look forward to engaging with policy and regulatory issues concerning electricity and carbon markets, and transmission system planning to facilitate a just transition to clean energy sources.  

Diversity in the Energy Sector 

Since 2002, my career has taken many a happy turn, and I have fortunately never been subject to such brazen discrimination as I initially faced. I believe that the bias, and at times outright harassment and hostility, that women and people of different genders face in professional and public spheres is a deep-rooted social and political issue. Even in the progressive think tanks and civil society organisations, walking the talk on gender sensitivity remains a work in progress. True transformation requires a strong commitment to embracing diversity of opinions and perspectives, especially when inconvenient. Such commitment to diversity also needs to go beyond gender and encompass class, caste, region, religion, and other markers of discrimination.    

But it is heartening to note that things are changing. One sees many more women today in all spheres of the energy sector than, say, ten years back. I have had the privilege to work with many talented and dedicated women professionals and have learned much from them. In general, I find the younger generation more aware of issues concerning boundaries, safety, and work-life balance. These are encouraging signs, and to foster them further, organisations must strive to create a healthy and inclusive work environment sensitive to these concerns.  

Beyond Energy and Regulation 

My professional journey has undoubtedly shaped my worldview and personal interests. It has made me deeply aware of how policy and governance outcomes shape our day-to-day lives. I want to understand and explore how these systems evolve and how they differ across different sectors, regions and cultures.  

My hobbies include reading, cooking, cycling, going on long walks, travelling (though this hasn’t happened much so far), and learning new languages.  

Looking Forward 

This journey from electrical engineering to energy policy has reinforced my belief that the most rewarding paths often diverge from the conventional routes. As the energy sector faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities, I remain committed to fostering inclusive and sustainable solutions that serve all members of society, especially, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged sections. 

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