Spot power prices lifted by fall in renewables output
European spot electricity prices for day-ahead delivery rose on Wednesday on the back of a forecast fall in power production from renewable wind and solar sources.
* The German baseload electricity price for Thursday delivery soared 4.25 euros or 12.88 percent to 37.25 euros ($42.31) per megawatt-hour (MWh).
* The equivalent French contract for Thursday gained over 2 percent to 37.50 euros/MWh.
* Electricity production from German wind turbines is expected to tumble by 2.3 gigawatts (GW) day-on-day on Thursday to 5.7 GW, according to Thomson Reuters data.
* German solar power generation will fall by 2.5 GW to 3.8 GW during the same period, the data shows.
* In France, nuclear power, which accounts for over 75 percent of electricity needs, is expected to remain stable at 63 percent of capacity following delays by a couple of days of the restart of several reactors.
* French wind and solar power supply will rise slightly by 600 megawatts (MW) and 180 MW respectively.
* On the demand side, consumption is forecast to fall slightly as average temperatures eases from previous highs, cutting demand for cooling. Consumption will fall by 460 MW in France to 47.8 GW on Thursday. German Thursday power consumption will fall by 410 MW to 70.7 GW.
* Average temperature will fall by 2.1 degrees Celsius in Germany on Thursday, and by 1.5 degrees in France.
* Along the forward curve, the German Cal ’18 benchmark gained 0.16 percent to 30.70 euros/MWh, tracking gains in coal and carbon emission prices.
* The equivalent French contract rose 0.27 percent to 36.80 euros/MWh.
* Coal cif North Europe added 0.86 percent to $70.10 per tonne.
* The December-expiry EU carbon contract rose 0.20 percent to 4.95 euros a tonne.
* In East Europe, the Czech contract for Thursday fell 8.99 percent to 40.50 euros/MWh. The year-ahead contract was untraded.($1 = 0.8804 euros).
Source: reuters
