German prompt power prices recovered some ground Monday as wind and solar power output was forecast to ease from peaks above 30 GW Monday afternoon ahead of the scheduled restart of a nuclear reactor later Tuesday evening, according to sources.
Baseload power for day-ahead delivery was last heard at Eur29.25/MWh, Eur4.25 above where Monday power closed Friday. Tuesday peakload last traded at Eur31.20/MWh, almost Eur2 above Monday's price on Friday.
Epex Spot settled Tuesday above OTC levels at Eur30.95/MWh baseload and Eur31.69/MWh peakload.
Wind power output was forecast to fall back below 9 GW for Tuesday's average baseload hours, after reaching peaks of 17 GW Saturday afternoon and again 13 GW during Monday, according to market sources.
Solar output was also forecast to fall back below 5 GW for baseload hours on Tuesday after peaking at 17 GW Sunday, the sources said.
On Monday, combined wind and solar output was forecast above 30 GW for hours 12 and 13, according to EEX transparency.
During July, wind power output averaged 3.1 GW, while solar output averaged 5.9 GW for baseload hours, according to Platts PowerVision data.
Germany's installed wind and solar portfolio now stands above 73 GW.
Nuclear availability was pegged unchanged at 9 GW until Tuesday 11:00 pm local time, when RWE's 1.3 GW Gundremmingen C reactor is scheduled to return to the grid, according to the utility's transparency website.
Further out on the prompt, week-ahead base was heard at Eur28.25/MWh after this week closed at Eur25.15/MWh on Friday, with demand set to dip due to the Assumption of Mary holiday Friday for Germany's Catholic states and many neighboring countries.
On the near curve, September base shed 15 euro cent to Eur33.60/MWh. Further forward, Cal 15 base was also heard 15 euro cent lower at Eur35.70/MWh.
