Spot down on renewable supply and falling use, curve strong
FRANKFURT, Sept 7 – European prompt power prices headed south on Thursday under the weight of healthy wind power supply in the region while consumption was forecast to fall ahead of the weekend.
* German baseload power for Friday delivery fell 11 percent to 29.1 euros ($34.86) per megawatt hour (MWh).
* The equivalent French day-ahead contract slipped 4.9 percent to 33.75 euros/MWh.
* German wind power output on Friday is expected to rise to 24.5 gigawatts (GW) from the 17 GW expected for Thursday, equivalent to half the installed total capacity, Thomson Reuters data shows.
* French nuclear power availability was stable at 70.12 percent of capacity.
* Power demand is expected to fall by 0.8 GW in France on Friday from Thursday to 46.8 GW and by 0.8 GW in Germany to 60.5 GW, with next week’s averages seen below those levels in both countries.
* French utility EDF has been notified of a 24-hour strike starting on Monday Sept. 11, the company and French grid operator RTE said on their websites.
* Along the power forwards curve, the German benchmark 2018 contract briefly touched the 32-month high set on Wednesday before falling with weakening oil and coal.
* The German Cal’18 baseload power contract was last 0.4 percent down on the day at 34.35 euros.
* The equivalent French year-ahead contract added 0.6 percent to 40.95 euros/MWh.
* December 2017 expiry EU carbon allowances were narrowly higher at 6.71 euros a tonne, having touched 16-month highs this week. The market has been boosted by France and Germany saying they would work together for an agreement on carbon market reforms by November and by generally bullish fuels.
* The benchmark coal contract cif Europe for 2018 delivery eased by 0.2 percent to $80 a tonne, having breached this level for the first times in three years on Tuesday. It has risen 27 percent since May.
* Bayerische Landesbank said in a report that there is no reason to expect a change to the bullish coal trend, citing China’s economic growth and tightness in the Indonesian and Australian mining sectors.
* In eastern Europe, Czech day-ahead power fell 3.1 euros to 29.9 euros/MWh. The year-ahead contract fell 20 cents to 34.70 euros/MWh. ($1 = 0.8347 euros) (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by David Goodman)
Source: reuters
