Spot Prices Fall on Sunshine and Lower Demand
Central European spot power prices fell on Friday, pulled lower by expectations for weaker consumption over the weekend and forecasts for rising solar levels, traders said.
On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for Saturday fell a little more than 12 percent to 29.98 euros ($38.86) per megawatt (MW) hour. The Hungarian day ahead premium narrowed with the price falling 24 percent to 30.70 euros on Hungary's HUPX exchange.
Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon showed forecasts for solar generation in Germany rising a little less than 1 gigawatt to 5.4 GW for Saturday and only falling slightly through the weekend.
Further along the curve, the Czech Cal '15 contract fell 5 cents to 34.65 euros and the Hungarian front year dipped 30 cents to 43.80 euros in over-the-counter trade.
Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract ticked 2 cents higher to 35.57 euros on Germany's EEX exchange in afternoon trade.
Poland's utilities will have over 5.7 gigawatts of power offline for planned maintenance on Sunday, data from grid operator PSE showed. Day ahead on Poland's POLPX fell to 173.91 zlotys ($53.84) from 207.77 zlotys.
Czech electricity producer CEZ will start a planned shutdown of the 500 MW Unit 1 at the Dukovany nuclear power station on Friday, the company said.
Austrian energy group OMV's natural gas storage is nearly full, providing a cushion should Russian gas supplies via Ukraine hit any snags, the head of its gas and power business told Reuters.
Russian natural gas flows to the European Union through Slovakia via Ukraine were running normally on Friday, Slovak pipeline operator Eustream said on its website.
Brent crude oil steadied near $102 a barrel, heading for a third weekly drop in four as a strong dollar depressed demand, though data showing lower crude stocks in the United States kept a floor under prices.
European Union carbon futures rose 5 cents to 6.18 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.
(1 US dollar = 0.7715 euro)
(1 US dollar = 3.2304 Polish zloty) (Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
