This refers to the editorial “Powerless at noon” (August 1). The Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) regulate power that states draw from power grids, but they can only warn the states overdrawing power. Warnings without non-compliance costs matter little. Had RLDCs been empowered to cut power supply to states drawing power in excess of their allocated share from the grids, collapse of northern, eastern and north-eastern grids could have been averted and 600 million people across the country would not have been pushed into the worst-ever power breakdown that brought life to a grinding halt on July 31. Maybe a toothless regulator suits the powers-that-be, but it defeats the purpose.
M C Joshi Lucknow
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