Spot prices fall on German wind supply surging
The European power prices fell dramatically on Thursday as wind and solar energy supplies were seen to be increasing in the entire region. German wind production is expected to be nearly six times higher than what was expected on Wednesday.
German baseload electricity for Thursday dropped 46.8% to 68.75 Euros ($76.01 per megawatt-hour (MWh) at 0840 GMT.
The French power price for the day ahead fell by 20.8%, to 82 Euro/MWh.
LSEG data indicated that the German wind output will increase by 22.4 gigawatts on Thursday, to 27 GW. The French wind output should also rise 1.2 GW from 2.8 GW.
According to data, solar power in Germany has also increased by 3.2 GW from 13.1 GW.
Marcus Eriksson, an analyst at LSEG, said that the high wind supply in Germany will likely contribute to prices being around zero by midday on Thursday.
The French nuclear capacity has fallen by two percentage points, to 71%.
LSEG data shows that power consumption in Germany will remain mostly unchanged at 56.5 GW Thursday, but demand in France will drop by 820 Megawatts (MW) or 43.7 GW.
The German power contract for the year ahead was down 0.6%, at 91.80 Euros/MWh. In France, 2025 baseload contracts had a range of bid-ask between 78.25 to 79.20 Euros/MWh.
The European CO2 allowances in December 2024 increased by 0.2%, to 68.28 Euros per metric ton.
In a recent note, Veyt analyst Anders Nordeng stated that the recent changes in German power, gas and coal prices have moved coal in front of gas in terms of power generation. The prospect of switching to coal from gas has also supported the carbon price. ($1 = 0.9045 euro) (Reporting and editing by Kim Coghill; Forrest Crellin)
(source: Reuters)
