French day-ahead power prices rose on Wednesday lifted by the bullish influence of falling wind power supplies, but the peakload contract traded below its German counterpart.
Wind in France, Germany to fall Thursday
Mild temperatures, weak demand cap gains
Peak French spot at discount to Germany
The baseload day-ahead contract gained more than Eur3 in value on the day to change hands at Eur28.50/MWh before 11 am London time, while the peakload spot contract surged more than Eur10 to trade at Eur42.50/MWh.
"Peak in France is lower than in Germany," a trader noted, due to increased "wind in France" during the peakload hours.
In the over-the-counter market German day-ahead peak contracts were Eur1 above French on Wednesday, and more than Eur3 higher on Epex Spot exchange daily auction.
According to spotrenewables forecasts, wind power supplies in France during the peakload hours in the day is expected to hit more than 8 GW on Thursday, compared with an average of around 7 GW during the baseload hours.
Wind in Germany on Thursday is expected to peak at 15 GW, which is nearly half the amount of wind expected for Wednesday, which had a bullish impact on power prices.
However, mild weather conditions and steady nuclear availability in France help cap gains on the prompt.
Nuclear power generation touched more than 55 GW on Wednesday, while wind output surged to 9.5 GW, RTE data showed.
Grid operator RTE also expects peak demand to fall to about 67 GW on Wednesday, compared with 69 GW forecast for Wednesday.
