Its a departure from rules-as-written, but for my group I do the following:

To use dark side pips you must use a destiny point and incur 1 strain per dark side pip used. I don't automatically dole out conflict, however. The reason? Conflict should be not be solely dependent on mechanics. You could roll all light-side pips and use the force for nefarious "dark-sider" purposes. You could roll all dark-side pips and use the force for charitable, just, and good purposes. Conflict should be rooted in motives, context, and circumstance. It should be narrative, which is how I rol e .