Spot Prices Fall on More Supply, Less Demand
Central European day ahead power prices fell on Thursday, pulled lower by healthy renewables and nuclear supply as well as declining demand heading into the weekend, traders said.
On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for Friday both fell to 34.69 euros ($44.10) per megawatt hour, a drop of 4 percent and 17 percent respectively. In Slovakia, the return to the grid of a unit at the Mochovce nuclear power plant added to supply.
Day ahead on Hungary's HUPX exchange - where spot prices have been at a regional premium because of reduced import capacity from neighboring countries - fell 11 percent to 39.02 euros.
Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed the forecast for wind generation in Germany falling about 600 megawatts (MW) to 6.8 gigawatts (GW) and solar production pegged to drop about 1 GW to 3.2 GW.
Further along the curve, the Czech Cal '15 ticked 4 cents higher to 34.14 euros and the Hungarian front year rose 10 cents to 43.75 euros on the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe.
Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract gained 11 cents to 34.82 euros in afternoon trade on Germany's EEX exchange.
Bosnia's top power utility EPBiH has shortlisted seven companies out of 12 bidders to help to build a 20 MW hydropower plant on the Bosna river, it said.
European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said he aims to propose an interim solution to the gas price row between Russia and Ukraine at talks he is brokering in Berlin on Friday.
Day ahead on Poland's POLPX exchange rose to 184.62 zlotys ($56.27) from 180.32 zlotys as data from the bourse showed an expected rise in planned and unplanned outages to 4.7 GW for Friday, from 4.5 GW a day earlier.
Brent crude oil recovered from early losses to trade above $97 a barrel as concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East helped the market to recover from a two-year low.
European Union carbon futures rose 2 cents to 5.84 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.
(1 US dollar = 0.7867 euro) (1 US dollar = 3.2809 Polish zloty)
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by David Goodman)
