Commissioners

Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena, Chairperson

Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena belongs to 1989 batch of Indian Administrative Service Officer of Odisha Cadre. He has 35 years of working experience in Administration. Since then, he has worked in diverse sectors from Agriculture and Natural Resources Management to Rural Development, Transport, Tax Administration, Industrial Development, Information Technology, Science & Technology, Panchayati Raj, Electricity, Water Resources Management and Disaster Management. He started his career as Sub-Collector, Dharmagarh Sub-Division in Kalahandi District. He has served as Collector of Cuttack District during Super Cyclone 1999 and as Collector Kalahandi District where he had initiated several path breaking initiatives in poverty reduction, natural resources management and decentralized and participatory development policies. He was Principal Secretary of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department, Department of Water Resources and Department of Energy. He was Assistant Country Director-cum-Team Leader, UNDP Disaster Risk Management Programme looking after sixteen States of the Country.

Shri Jena was the Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary to Govt. with additional charge of Additional Chief Secretary to Govt., Rural Development Department, Special Relief Commissioner and Managing Director, OSDMA. He was instrumental in managing several cyclones of very high severity and has ensured Zero Human Casualty in each of the eight cyclones of severe intensity between July 2019 and June 2024.

He has implemented several programmes maintaining Disaster Risk Reduction, particularly in power sector. He is a veteran in Disaster Management (Pre, During and Post Disaster) including response, recovery, rehabilitation, mitigation and adaption. Further, he had significant contribution in designing Just Transition in the state of Odisha.

He had taken up the responsibility of Chief Secretary & Chief Development Commissioner from 01.3.2023 to 30.6.2024. Shri Jena has taken oath as the Chairperson, Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission on 08th April, 2025.

Shri Gajendra Mohapatra, Member

Born on 26th May, 1960 at village-Kanikapada, Block-Dasarathpur, District: Jajpur. Shri Gajendra Mohapatra enrolled as an Advocate and joined practice at Bhubaneswar Bar. He entered into Odisha Judicial Service and had served as a Judicial Officer at different places such as Baragarh, Aska, Bhubaneswar, Kamakhyanagar and Rourkela. He was Registrar (Judicial) of the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa before his appointment as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Odisha, Bhubaneswar. Later, he served as the Special Judge (Vigilance), Balasore and District and Sessions Judge, Dhenkanal prior to his assignment as the Director (Prosecution Wing) to the Hon’ble Lokayukta, Odisha, Bhubaneswar.

His career as Judicial Officer included commendable work on civil, criminal, sessions and vigilance cases. During his stint as the Director of Prosecution of the Hon’ble Lokayukta, Odisha, he had actively participated in organising awareness programmes in different parts of Odisha to disseminate knowledge about the anti-corruption mechanism. Shri Mohapatra has taken oath as the Member, Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bhubaneswar on 1st June, 2020.

Shri Sushanta Kumar Ray Mohapatra, Member

Shri Sushanta Kumar Ray Mohapatra, formerly of the Indian Engineering Service, joined the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission on 29th December, 2021 after retiring from Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power, Govt. of India. Born on 21st May 1961, Shri Mohapatra has done Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Sambalpur University, Odisha; Master’s degree in Power system from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from Faculty of Management Studies(FMS), University of Delhi.

He had been with Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of Power for the past 34 years. During his tenure with CEA he has held various important positions across divisions such as Planning, Design & Engineering, Monitoring and Grid Operation and was also involved informulation of regulations, technical standard, specifications and guidelines. He was actively involved in Design & Engineering consultancy for first 400kV substation of Govt. of Bhutan and APTRANSCO; formulation of guidelines for Export/Import (Cross Border) of Electricity (2018) with neighbouring country; preparation of report of task force (constituted by Ministry of Power, Gov. of India) on Cyclone Resilient Robust Electricity T&D infrastructure in coastal areas of the country; preparation of One Nation One Specification - Standard Specifications for EHV AC Transformers & Reactors (66kV and above voltage class); preparation of “Manual on Substation” of Central Board of Irrigation & Power (CBI&P) and reduction in RoW of transmission lines in urban & forest areas of the country etc.

He also served as Member Secretary of North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) and introduced requisition based Scheduling, protection audit, implementation of System Protection Scheme (SPS) & Islanding scheme in North Eastern Region for the first time.

He is a senior member of IEEE, USA and was representing CEA as Member / Chairman in various technical committees.He retired as Chief Engineer, CEA in 2021 and has been nominated as Expert of National Committee on Transmission (NCT), Ministry of Power (Govt. of India). He has contributed number of papers & articles tonational & international seminars and journals & magazines on Indian Power sector.

Shri Ray Mohapatra has taken over the responsibility as Member, Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

Former Commissioners