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Power Purchase Agreements- Unilateral Amendment of PPAs – Responsibilities and authority of the Administrator of Renewable Energy Sources and Guarantees of Origin (DAPEEP)

18 May, 2021

The Single Member Court of Appeal of Athens (Decision no. 2109/2020), upon examination of the requests of the opposing parties and the relevant legislation governing RES, and in particular Law 4303/2012 and Law 4254/2014, concluded in the following main legal aspects of PPAs under the Greek Law:

 

1. PPAs between a producer and DAPEEP are regulated, with a type and content that are defined in Ministerial Decisions and therefore constitute administrative contracts, while DAPEEP is given the possibility of unilateral modification as far as it concerns the price according to a relevant provision of L.4254 / 2014.

 

2. DAPEEP in the above Agreements does not have the role of a “buyer” but undertakes the responsibilities of processing and clearing transactions and therefore does not owe a fee to the producer, which is also paid by charging the accounts of the load representatives.

 

3. During the performance of the above responsibilities, DAPEEP acts for the fulfillment of the public interest, exercising public authority.

 

4. DAPEEP belongs to the Greek State and is under the disposal and control of the State (operational standard) and further more owner of the project of the PPA is the Greek State which is the sole shareholder of DAPEEP (organic standard).

 

5. The charges on the producers under Law 4303/2012 and Law 4254/2014 were imposed unilaterally by special provisions of legislation and regulations and therefore do not constitute private liability claims.

 

6. Power Purchase Agreements, according to article 12 of Law 3608/2006, are obligatory for the integration of RES and CHP stations in the System or the Grid and therefore the producer does not possess any bargaining power.

 

7. The regulations of Law 4254/2014 do not serve the “financial interest”, but the serious interest of the national economy for balancing the market and reassuring the financially viable operation of RES units in the long term (the Council of the State has consistently judged that the coverage of the deficit of the Special Account for RES constitutes a purpose of general public interest and indeed regardless of the reasons for its creation).