Spot Up On Lower Wind, Strike, Outages

European prompt power price rose on Monday as German wind power was forecast to fall more than half to Tuesday, while French prices rose on operators covering against possible supply shortfalls from a planned strike that day.

German baseload (24 hours) power for delivery on Tuesday was 7.6 euros up from the price paid for Monday at 36.35 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh).

The equivalent French contract was up 10.55 euros at 48 euros ($60) per MWh.

"Prices are going up on lower wind, thermal plant outages and the French strike," one trader said. "But overall, relatively warm and sunny weather in the first half of the week are tempering that," he added.

The French premium over the identical German contract reflected a call by local unions for a selective strike in the country's power sector on Nov. 4.

Traders said it was unclear how much capacity would be involved and that there might be some big intraday prices moves should it be substantial.

German wind power production was expected to come in around 6 gigawatts (GW) on Tuesday, according to Thomson Reuters Point Carbon data, which put Monday at 12.7 GW. Wednesday's output was seen lower yet, at 1.8 GW before a recovery in the rest of the week.

Vattenfall's Schwarze Pumpe A coal-to-power plant of 762 MW in eastern Germany will be offline until Nov. 6.

Germany's Cal 15 was unchanged at 34.40 euros per MWh, with lower oil, coal and carbon prices counterbalancing some higher gas prices.

The equivalent French contract, Cal '15 baseload, was 5 cents off at 42.65 euros/MWh.

In related fuels markets, British prompt gas rose on an undersupplied system as consumption increased due to lower temperatures.

Brent crude oil, which has fallen sharply over the past four months and especially strongly in the month of October, in its first November trading session steadied at just under $86 a barrel.

Traders said a stronger dollar balanced evidence of slightly lower oil production by OPEC.

European carbon permits prices were down 1.6 percent, at 6.45 euros per tonne. Point Carbon analysts did not rule out a consolidation, but pegged next support at 6.27 euros.

(1 US dollar = 0.7998 euro) (Reporting by Vera Eckert,; editing by William Hardy)