Spot prices plunge ahead of May Day
European electricity prices dropped on Wednesday, as demand is expected to fall ahead of the Labour Day Holiday in Europe. Prices are expected to remain low into the weekend.
By 0811 GMT, the French baseload day-ahead traded at $5.69 per megawatt hour (88.2% less).
The German baseload position for the day ahead fell by 36.4%, to 46.4 Euros.
The bid price for the country's contract on Friday was 54 euros/MWh.
LSEG data shows that German wind power production fell by 320 megawatts to 3.1 gigawatts during the holiday. It is then expected to increase on Friday to nine GW.
LSEG data revealed that French wind power is expected to fall by 1.4 GW and will then continue to decline to 2.2 GW Friday.
On Friday, Germany's power demand is expected to drop 2.8 GW compared to Wednesday to 50.6 GW. LSEG data shows that French consumption will also be down 2.3 GW at 38.8 GW.
Riccardo Paraviero, LSEG analyst, said that the residual demand in the region is expected to fall on Friday.
The French nuclear capacity has increased by two percentage points, to 62%.
The new boss of the state-owned energy company EDF has said that investment must be prioritized to maintain France's nuclear fleet. He also stated his intention to increase nuclear production from 360 terawatt-hours (TWh), which is what it is now, to 400 TWh per year by 2030.
German baseload for the year ahead was down 0.3% at 79.9 Euros/MWh. French 2026 baseload has not been traded after closing at 60.45 euro.
Benchmark European carbon permits increased by 0.9% to 65.41 euro per metric tonne. $1 = 0.8787 Euros (Reporting and editing by Kim Coghill; Forrest Crellin)
(source: Reuters)
