* French spot high amid unexpected nuclear outages
* France and Belgium coupled for seven hours Tuesday
* German Cal 17 rebounds with coal, gas despite EUA falls
German day-ahead power prices rose on Monday on a week-long bearish outlook for wind output, while French day-ahead prices were supported by nuclear and thermal outages.
German baseload power for day-ahead delivery was last heard Eur3.25 higher at Eur35.25/MWh, with peakload up Eur1.50 at Eur38.75/MWh.
Epex Spot settled below OTC at Eur33.09/MWh baseload and Eur35.58/MWh peakload. Sunday's EPEX settle for Monday of Eur36.78/MWh was its highest since January, and up Eur12.34/MWh from the settlement for Sunday.
Wind power forecast data was revised downward to show barely 2 GW of expected average baseload wind output for Tuesday. Throughout the week Monday's expectations for wind generation exceeded 4 GW only on Sunday.
Solar power should range between 12 GW and 14 GW during week 36, according to https://spotrenewables.com/. European Energy Exchange data showed wind power on Monday would account for a large share of renewable output, in particular between hours 00 and 09. Solar power output is expected to peak during hour 13 at 12 GW.
Conventional power generation availability was little changed. EEX data pegged combined hard coal and lignite availability for Tuesday at 28-GW and nuclear availability at 9 GW.
In France, reduced thermal and nuclear capacity supported the prompt.
French day-ahead baseload power was last heard trading before Platts 11:00 am London time close at Eur41.50/MWh, up Eur4.50 from Friday's close of Monday baseload, while day-ahead peakload was last heard at Eur47/MWh, up more than Eur5.
EDF unexpectedly removed its St Alban-1 1.3-GW nuclear power station from the grid Sunday due to a technical failure. French grid operator said the plant would return online Monday at 7:30 pm local time. Meanwhile, E.ON removed its 600-MW Emile Huchet-6 coal unit from the grid Monday for unplanned maintenance due to a technical failure.
Further pressure on the French system was due to come Tuesday from an increase in demand. RTE forecast load would increase Tuesday to a high of 56 GW from a peak of 55.2 GW Monday.
The CASC utility tool showed the French day-ahead coupled with Belgium for seven hours Tuesday. The Belgian spot exchange settled higher than its French counterpart, while OTC Belgian day-ahead traded below France.
"There has been no outage communication and as Germany came out low, there was no pressure from this side," a trader said.
On the curve, most contracts rebounded after bearish pressure last week as oil prices rallied lifting gas and coal contracts. By contrast, EUA carbon allowances dropped below Eur4/mt in early trading, their lowest in over three years, trading at Eur3.96/mt by noon London time.
German baseload power for Cal 17 delivery, the benchmark for European power, was heard trading at Eur26.10/MWh, up 25 euro cent from Friday's close.
Front-year coal into Europe rose over $1 to $59.70/mt during the morning, but fell back slightly with oil prices giving up most of their early gains as well.
