Discounts are maintained in France despite prices falling in Germany
German spot electricity prices for Thursday dropped on Wednesday due to expectations of a higher wind energy supply and lower demand. Meanwhile, those in France rose from a lower baseline, but still maintained a discount compared to the neighboring market.
LSEG data revealed that the German baseload power contract for day-ahead was down by 29.5% to 57.5 euros ($63.01 per megawatt hour) at 0800 GMT. The French equivalent contract increased by 37.1%, to 49.0 Euros/MWh.
Marcus Eriksson, LSEG analyst, says that residual load - or the amount of electricity required to fill conventional sources after renewables have been taken into account - is declining in Germany.
He added that the country is replacing its reduced hard and brown coal production capacity with more gas.
LSEG data shows that German wind power production is expected to increase by 4.1 gigawatts, to 20.2 GW in the next day, while French supply will drop by 4.2 GW, to 6.5 GW.
The latest French nuclear availability has increased by 5 percentage points, reaching 74% of the total capacity.
On Thursday, Germany's power consumption is expected to drop by 500 MW at 56.3 GW. In France, demand is predicted to fall 100 MW at 46.5 GW.
German power for the year ahead was down 0.7% to 84.05 euro/MWh. French baseload 2025 was not traded after closing at 71.85 euro/MWh.
The price of European CO2 allowances in December 2024 has risen by 2.2%, to 61.61 Euros per metric ton.
Energy Transition Outlook, a report by assurance provider DNV, states that 2024 will be remembered as the year of peak energy emission.
China's main reason for this is that it has installed more solar and wind power and reduced its dependence on coal which emits high levels of CO2. It also increased exports of green technology.
Berlin's economy ministry stated that Germany's terminals for liquefied gas are an insurance against a natural gas shortage if transit to European countries with no coastal access through Ukraine were cut off.
(source: Reuters)
