Day-ahead power prices in Germany fell sharply on a surge in wind generation forecast for the next couple of days, with next week's peak expected on Monday.
Monday delivery base plummeted by Eur24.25/MWh from Friday's price to Eur19.25/MWh, while the peakload contract fell Eur21.25/MWh to Eur27.50/MWh.
Wind generation was predicted to reach 37.6 GW on Monday or a load factor of 69% for peakload hours and set to rise during base hours to 35.5 GW on average on Monday, according to spotrenewables.com. Friday was set to have sharply lower wind generation of less than 3 GW.
Solar production was forecast to from 2 GW Friday to 1.2 GW Monday during peak hours.
Availability of coal and lignite power plants on Monday was pegged at 13.6 GW and 18 GW, respectively, EEX transparency data showed.
Nuclear availability was 9.4 GW.
EPEX Spot settled Saturday above the OTC market at Eur32.81/MWh for the base. OTC, Saturday was at Eur31/MWh, while Sunday was trading at Eur2/MWh before 11:00 am London time. Earlier on Friday, Sunday delivery was trading in the negative at minus Eur1.50/MWh.
While German forward prices on the near curve edged up as colder weather forecasts for the winter months emerged, the far curve was generally steady with Q2 and the year-ahead baseload up only by 5 euro cent to Eur32.90/MWh and Eur35.50/MWh respectively.
The front-month baseload, by contrast, jumped almost Eur1/MWh to Eur39.75/MWh Friday morning.
