German wind power supply is falling, resulting in a split of spot prices

The European spot prices for Wednesday were split from Tuesday. German spot prices rose due to a falling wind supply, and a rise in demand was expected. However, forecasts of strong French wind production affected the spot price for France.

LSEG data shows that German baseload power for the day ahead was up 10% at 124 Euros ($130.44 per megawatt-hour (MWh) as of 1052 GMT.

The French equivalent contract fell by 27.1% to 82 euros/MWh.

Naser Hashemi, LSEG analyst, said: "On average the residual load (on Wednesday) in Germany was up due to lower renewable energy output and slightly increased consumption."

Naser said that this is likely to be different in the afternoon. As a result, Germany will import during the morning and export the rest of it.

LSEG data shows that the German wind output is expected to fall by 3.9 gigawatts to 23.5 GW. French production is expected to increase by 5.3 GW up to 9.9 GW.

The data revealed that the solar supply in Germany will fall by 850 Megawatts (MW), to 2.3 GW.

The French nuclear availability remained unchanged at 82% total capacity, as three recent unplanned power outages were prolonged by at least one day.

LSEG data shows that power consumption in Germany will increase by 1.5 GW Wednesday to 62.6 GW. In France, demand is expected to fall 1 GW at 56.5 GW.

Robert Habeck, the German Economy Minister, proposed to introduce subsidies for stabilizing electricity network fees. These would be funded by a 2024 supplementary budget.

The German power contract for the year ahead was down by 0.3%, at 101 euros/MWh. Meanwhile, the French baseload contract for 2025 fell by 0.3% to 79.60 euro/MWh.

The European CO2 allowances in December 2024 fell 0.7%, to 69.46 euro per metric ton. $1 = 0.9507 Euros (Reporting and editing by Forrest Crellin)

(source: Reuters)