European power prices were largely stable on the far curve Wednesday as the market digested the implications of Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election.
Meanwhile, prompt contracts continued to deliver much below last week's expectations in France and rose slightly in Germany as wind was set to fall day on day.
German baseload power for year-ahead delivery, the benchmark contract for European power, was heard unchanged at Eur34.30/MWh by noon London time with slight gains for coal offset by a stronger euro and falling EUA carbon allowances.
In other power-related commodities, crude oil futures nosedived initially after news of Trump's win before recovering to be little changed at midday. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.
The German Calendar market has risen 40% over the past seven weeks amid gains for coal and concern about the French nuclear fleet this winter, and market sources said it was too early to judge any impact from Trump's victory.
Elsewhere, Germany delayed its 2050 climate action plan amid resistance from the energy ministry to determine a date for an exit from coal-fired power generation, which still dominates the power mix.
On the prompt markets, German power prices for Thursday delivery rose on low wind and were last heard OTC at Eur51.25/MWh base and Eur64.50/MWh peakload, up by Eur1.25 and Eur5.50, respectively day on day. Epex Spot settled just above OTC at Eur51.78/MWh and Eur65.09/MWh.
The outlook for wind power output for Thursday was revised down, with 3 GW less wind than forecast on Tuesday, dropping to 3.5 GW during average baseload hours, according to spotrenewables.com.
Temperatures for the next days were forecast by CustomWeather to remain slightly below seasonal averages.
German plant availability for Wednesday was set to fall slightly day on day, with EEX Transparency pegging coal and lignite at 33.3 GW while nuclear was pegged at 10.4 GW.
Meanwhile, French spot power prices fell for the third day as the week continued to deliver well below the price it was valued at last week when peak traded at Eur500/MWh amid historically low nuclear availability.
Day-ahead baseload power was last heard trading OTC before the Platts 11 am London time close (1100 GMT) at Eur81/MWh, or down Eur24 day on day, while day-ahead peakload was last heard at Eur102/MWh, down Eur48.
French week-ahead prices also continued to fall, to be seen Eur6 lower at Eur69/MWh before recovering to Eur71.50/MWh.
Demand for electricity Thursday in France is set to fall to a high of 71.6 GW from a peak of 73 GW Wednesday, according to French grid operator RTE, as temperatures rise to 1 degree Celsius below the norm, from more than 3 C below Wednesday.
Further out, power prices were relatively stable with Calendar 2017 baseload last heard trading at Eur45.80/MWh, down about 20 euro cent.
