The ministry on Thursday directed the discoms to accept invoices and billing through emails and make payments to renewable energy generators as per their power purchasing agreements (PPAs).
Some state discoms had invoked the ‘force majeure’ clause in their PPAs in recent days asking generating companies not to supply electricity nor expect any payment till further notice because the nationwide lockdown is preventing them from collecting payments from consumers.
The new and renewable energy ministry (MNRE) has now pointed out that renewable energy generating stations have been granted a place in the “essentials” list exempted from the lockdown, and they will be allowed to continue to function during the lockdown period. As such, they must honour the payments made earlier.
Citing the power ministry’s earlier notice, relaxing the payment security mechanism that gave discoms a three-month moratorium period, MNRE said the status of “must run remains unchanged during the period of lockdown”.
