Day Ahead Prices Decline as Wind Expected to Drop
- Hungary secures Russian gas imports for storage
- Polish unplanned outages expected to fall
- Low wind generation levels seen next week
Central European day ahead power prices fell on Friday on low weekend demand but ebbing wind generation levels limited the declines and were expected to support prices at the start of next week, traders said.
On regional exchanges, Czech electricity for Saturday fell nearly 9 percent to 31.64 euros ($40.2) per megawatt hour, Slovak day ahead slipped more than 5 percent to 32.83 euros and Hungarian prompt power fell about 3 percent to 37.92 euros.
Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed forecasts for wind generation in Germany falling to 1.9 gigawatts (GW) on Saturday from 6.3 GW a day earlier and starting the working week at about 1.1 GW.
"Monday will see almost no wind according to the latest forecast," Thomson Reuters Point Carbon analysts wrote.
Further along the curve, the Czech front month rose 20 cents to 34.80 euros a few days ahead of delivery and Hungarian power for October gained 35 cents to 46.50 euros.
On the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe, the Czech Cal '15 rose 11 cents to 34.25 euros and the Hungarian front year fell 10 cents to 43.60 euros.
Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract gained 15 cents to 34.98 euros in afternoon trade on Germany's EEX exchange.
Hungary has secured increased gas imports from Russia's Gazprom, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, a day after Hungary's pipeline operator FGSZ stopped shipping gas to Ukraine.
Day ahead prices on Poland's POLPX exchange fell to 152.72 zlotys ($46.4) from 180.32 zlotys as data from the bourse showed an expected reduction in unplanned outages to 1.3 GW for Saturday from 1.7 GW a day earlier.
Brent crude held near $97 a barrel and was headed for its biggest monthly drop since April 2013 as rising supplies outweighed fears that U.S.-led strikes against Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq would disrupt oil production.
European Union carbon futures rose 7 cents to 5.89 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.
(1 US dollar = 0.7867 euro) (1 US dollar = 3.2885 Polish zloty)
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; editing by David Clarke)
