Spot Declines; Monday Falls on More Wind

Stronger hydro power generation sent central and southeast Europe spot power prices lower on Friday, offsetting higher consumption due to colder weather forecasts and modest wind power output, traders said.

On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak power for delivery on Saturday declined more than 28 percent to 30.82 euros ($34) a megawatt-hour (MWh). Hungarian day-ahead dropped nearly 27 percent to 32.22 euros, while the Romanian equivalent fell more than 13 percent to 25.24 euros.

Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed wind power output dropping by 3 gigawatts (GW) to 5 GW on Saturday. "Lower wind power is expected for the weekend compared with last one, especially on Sunday," its analyst said in a daily report.

One trader said higher water levels on the Danube have had an impact on Slovak and Czech spot prices while a strong hydro power influx from the Balkans will continue to weigh on Hungarian and Romanian prices.

Czech power for delivery on Monday traded at 36 euros, 8 euros lower than the level paid for delivery on Friday while the Hungarian equivalent fell 9 euros to 40 euros in the over-the-counter market as wind power output was forecast to rebound.

Further along the curve, the Czech Cal '16 contract fell 0.32 percent to 31.35 euros in afternoon trade on the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe while the Hungarian power for delivery next year rose 0.12 percent to 41.65 euros.

Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '16 contract shed 9 cents to 31.70 euros in afternoon trade on Germany's EEX exchange.

Day ahead on Poland's POLPX exchange fell to 149.63 zlotys ($40) from 165.96 zlotys as bourse data showed outages of the country's utilities falling to 3.9 GW from 4.9 GW a day before.

European carbon futures gained 6 cents to 6.90 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.

Oil prices rose after the death of Saudi Arabia's king added to the uncertainty in global oil markets, although the new ruler indicated immediately there would be no policy change.

Reporting by Maja Zuvela