French baseload power for next day delivery was up almost Eur10 at the start of week 34 Monday amid concern the system could tighten as the week progresses, with nuclear generation forecast lower and consumption higher, a market source said.
Supply margins have been considerably comfortable of late, with baseload power for delivery Monday as low as Eur15/MWh Friday. However, the day-ahead contract had risen by Eur9.90 on Monday to Eur24.90/MWh by Platts 11:00 am London time close, with peakload up Eur11 at Eur30/MWh.
Epex Spot settled day-ahead base around 35 euro cent below the OTC market at Eur24.56/MWh, with peakload Eur1.50 below at Eur28.46/MWh.
The increase in the day-ahead OTC price brings the contract more in line with the value of power for week 35 delivery, which last traded at Eur27.75/MWh in base and Eur34.30/MWh in peak. That is up around Eur8.50 on the current week in base, and over Eur12.50 higher in peak.
One trader said the French market remained a guessing game after such comfortable supply margins in recent months, and was unconcerned about the sudden increase in prices, with the Eur25/MWh trading level still not seen particularly high compared to other surrounding markets.
The latest RTE data showed that nuclear availability for Tuesday would be 44.7 GW, 1.2 GW lower than 45.9 GW expected Friday, despite the 1.3 GW Penly 2 nuclear power reactor in northern France that tripped Friday returning to the grid at the weekend.
Peak power consumption Monday was at 48.3 GW, forecast to rise by 1 GW to 49.3 GW Tuesday, remaining at the level through to the end of the week, before reaching 51.5 GW next Monday.
According to the latest CustomWeather forecast, temperatures in Paris are currently 4 degree Celsius below the 15-25 C seasonal average and will fall by a further 2 C in the next two days. No significant increase in temperature is forecast through to early next week.
