Italian cross-border export power prices for January retreated from record highs in December while import prices fell in annual comparison in auctions held Thursday, according to European auction platform Joint Allocation Office (JAO).
Nonetheless, on the Italy-France border, the Italian export price remained higher than the import price, with outcomes of Eur2.52/MWh and Eur1.80/MWh, respectively.
This compared to January baseload prices of Eur55.80/MWh for France and Eur52.25/MWh for Italy as assessed Wednesday.
January is the third consecutive month where the Italian export price to France has been auctioned at a higher price than the Italian import price.
Elsewhere, the spread on the Italy-Switzerland link remained narrow, with export capacity sold at Eur0.50/MWh and import capacity at Eur0.56/MWh. No annual comparisons were available as the auctions were not held for January 2016.
Meanwhile, the Austrian import price fell Eur8.43/MWh year on year to Eur14.49/MWh, its lowest value in three months.
JAO also reported that a maintenance program that started in April is expected to continue into January, affecting capacity on a number of the country's import links.
According to JAO.EU, there will be maintenance on the France-Italy link, taking monthly baseload capacity to zero for the full day January 1 and January 2, also January 6, January 8 and January 9.
On the Austria to Italy link, monthly baseload capacity will be reduced to zero between hour one on January 1 and 6 am January 2; then between 11 pm January 5 and 6 pm on January 6; and 11 pm January 7 and 6 pm on January 9, JAO.EU said.
On the Switzerland to Italy link, monthly baseload capacity will be reduced to zero between hour one on January 1 and 8 am on January 2, then the whole day of January 6 and then between hour one on January 8 and 8 am January 9.
Peak load capacity will be reduced to zero between 8 am and 8 pm on January 6, it said.
On the Slovenia to Italy link, maintenance will mean zero monthly baseload capacity for the full days January 1, January 2, January 6, January 8 and January 9.
Auctions for capacity between Italy and Greece were not held as an outage persists on the undersea link between the two countries, which is due to continue until the middle of January.
There is no maintenance due to affect Italian export capacity on the other links during the month, according to JAO.EU.
