French and German day-ahead power was pressured by surging wind strength Wednesday, causing spot prices to fall by half on the day.
The German day-ahead baseload contract lost Eur13/MWh to Eur14.50/MWh, while the peakload erased over Eur17/MWh to Eur13.25/MWh.
Epex Spot settled closer to the over-the-counter market than Monday when a price difference of over Eur5/MWh was achieved. However, the exchange still came out lower, settling at Eur13.31/MWh for base and Eur12.89/MWh for peak.
"Yesterday France and Germany were on similar price levels, and in times of market coupling, every upwards correction of the forecast renewables production can lead to sharp price slumps," a trader said on Monday's big price gap between exchange and OTC.
In Germany, wind power was set to rise to 30 GW Wednesday for baseload hours and 32 GW for peak times, while solar rose as well, up 2 GW to 14 GW production during peakload hours, data from spotrenewables showed.
The weekend was seen trading at Eur24/MWh, unchanged from Monday's close, while the week-ahead price ticked up 50 euro cent to Eur31.50/MWh.
Combined hard coal and lignite availability for Wednesday was set at 26 GW, with nuclear pegged at 8.4 GW, according to EEX Transparency.
The 1.4-GW Brokdorf reactor outage was delayed until June 25, as announced on EEX Transparency Tuesday morning, amid the pending approval for a restart from nuclear authorities following repair works.
FRENCH SPOT PRESSURED
French spot power prices fell Tuesday as strong renewables generation from the neighboring German market coupled with forecast lower demand were likely to keep the system well supplied.
The price of French baseload power for Wednesday delivery was last heard at Eur25.25/MWh on the OTC market, down Eur3.55 on the previous close, while the day-ahead peakload price fell Eur2.75 to Eur29.25/MWh before the 11 am London close Tuesday.
The spot baseload contract in the daily EPEX spot auction also cleared lower on the day at Eur21.21/MWh, down from Eur22.03/MWh Monday, but its peak counterpart nudged marginally higher to Eur25.62/MWh, up from Monday's settlement price of Eur25.49/MWh.
Renewables generation in France is expected to ease to 7.4 GW for peakload hours, down from Tuesday's forecast of 10 GW, spot renewables data showed. However, wind and solar power production is set to peak at above 45 GW in Germany, allaying potential supply concerns in France.
GERMAN CURVE MIXED
Prices on the German curve were mixed Tuesday morning, with the near curve weakening and the far curve gaining.
The year-ahead contract was last seen trading at Eur30.90/MWh, up 10 euro cent/MWh from Monday's close.
Front-year coal into Europe didn't see big movements in morning trading, edging 40 cents higher on the day.
December 2017 EUAs were last seen trading at Eur5.14/mt, slightly lower.
The front months, which ticked up in the previous session, weakened Tuesday morning.
July baseload was last seen at Eur32.85/MWh, down 45 euro cent/MWh, while the Q3 stood at Eur32.90/MWh, down 20 euro cent/MWh.
