Spot Prices Fall on Less Demand, Weather, More Renewables

Forecasts for lower electricity demand over the weekend, higher temperatures and a pick-up in renewable power supply sent central and southeastern Europe spot power prices lower on Friday, traders said.

On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for delivery on Saturday declined more than 24 percent to 33.48 euros ($41.63) per megawatt-hour (MWh), while Hungarian and Romanian spot fell by nearly 6 percent to 41.68 euros and 40.67 euros, respectively.

Romania has recently linked its day-ahead market with those of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary as part of a plan to improve supplies and make retail prices more stable.

Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed forecasts for wind generation in Germany almost doubling to 3.1 gigawatts (GW), while solar power output is seen increasing by 460 MW to close to 2 GW.

Further along the curve, the Czech front month gained 3 cents to 34.23 euros, and Hungarian power for December increased 25 cents to 44.10 euros.

On the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe, the Czech Cal '15 was flat at 34.75 euros while the Hungarian front year declined 25 cents to 42.75 euros, tracking carbon and coal lower, traders said.

Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract shed 3 cents to 35.20 euros in afternoon trade on Germany's EEX exchange.

In Poland, day-ahead power on the POLPX exchange fell to 217.49 zlotys ($64.33) from 332.58 zlotys as data from the bourse showed planned and unplanned outages would rise to 6.6 GW from 5.8 GW on Saturday.

Brent crude oil rose more than $2 to above $81 a barrel on Friday after China cut interest rates and on speculation that OPEC could agree next week to reduce oil production.

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

(Reporting by Maja Zuvela; editing by Jane Baird)