Regulations will prevail over the provisions of the PPA. In the instant case, however, the Commission does not find any conflict. Rather, the PPA provides in clear terms that “the SPD shall be required to make arrangements and payments for import of energy (if any) as per applicable regulations”. This is exactly in line with the interpretation of the Commission in the context of Issue (a) and Issue (b). The DSM Regulations, 2014 do not make a provision for solar generators drawing power during night hours and/or for maintenance and shut down. This should be interpreted to mean that such solar generators cannot meet their drawl requirement through DSM but need to enter into power purchase arrangement for such drawl. Such power purchase arrangement can be with the distribution licensee of the State in which the generator is located or with any other entity through open access. It is only when the arrangement is made with the State in which the generator is located that the „energy drawn from the grid will be regulated as per the regulation of the respective State the Project is located in‟. In the instant case, there is no such arrangement between the SPDs and the distribution licensee(s) of MP. As such, the energy drawn by the SPDs during night hours and/or for maintenance and shut down cannot be accounted for as import from the distribution licensee of MP. For such energy accounting, power purchase arrangement and drawl schedule of SPDs and the corresponding injection schedule of the distribution licensee(s) are a pre-condition. In the absence of any such arrangement, the prayer of the Petitioner that it be allowed to bill the SPDs towards power drawn during non-generation night hours and during shutdown periods or during any emergencies including their repair and maintenance, etc. is rejected.
