Czech, Slovak Day-Ahead Prices Up On Wind Power Drop

• Polish outages forecast steady for Tuesday at 5.2 GW
• Hungarian system remains tight
• Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine steady

Czech and Slovak day-ahead power rose on Monday due to falling wind levels in the region and narrowed the gap with Hungarian spot prices, which were still at a big premium due to power plant outages, traders said.

On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for Saturday climbed 11 percent to 40.95 euros ($51.97) per megawatt hour, while Hungarian day-ahead declined 12 percent to 50.12 euros.

Hungarian prompt prices remained at a large premium due to limited exports and outages, which included a unit at the Matra coal-fired power plant, traders said.

Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed wind generation in Germany was forecast to ease to 1.6 gigawatts for Tuesday from 3.5 GW a day earlier, with solar output pegged to tick 200 megawatts higher to 3.3 GW.

Further along the curve, the Czech front year fell 40 cents to 33.40 euros, while the Hungarian Cal '15 shed 25 cents to 43.25 euros on the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe.

"Long-term prices declined because of the drop in carbon, coal and fears of a slowing German economy," one trader said. "There is also strong wind forecast for the weekend and next week, which drove down the week and month contracts."

Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract declined 40 cents to 33.86 euros in afternoon trade on Germany's EEX exchange.

Russian natural gas flows to the European Union through Slovakia via Ukraine were stable on Monday, data from Slovak pipeline operator Eustream's website showed.

Serbia's grid operator EMS plans to spend 400 million euros over the next six years to upgrade its ageing power network and build new links to nations in the European Union.

Day-ahead prices on Poland's POLPX exchange rose to 214.71 zlotys ($65) from 194.02 zlotys as bourse data showed planned and unplanned outages would hold steady at around 5.2 GW for Tuesday.

Brent crude oil fell below $88 a barrel, its lowest in almost four years, after key Middle East producers signalled they would keep output high even if that meant lower prices.

European carbon futures dipped 11 cents to 5.93 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.

(1 US dollar = 0.7879 euro) (1 US dollar = 3.3049 Polish zloty)

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; editing by Jane Baird)