French day-ahead prices fell Thursday as wind generation was predicted to increase from 600 MW to 3.6 GW at peak times amid otherwise stable fundamentals, sources said.
Baseload power for Friday delivery was last heard before midday local time at Eur41/MWh, down Eur4.85 compared with Thursday baseload.
Peakload power for Friday shed Eur8 on the day and was last heard at Eur45/MWh.
Epex Spot settled the day-ahead contract at Eur38.39/MWh for baseload and at Eur41.38/MWh for peakload.
"It was mainly wind bringing it down, everything else was stable," a trader said.
Wind in-feed was 600 MW at peak times Thursday, down from 800 MW Wednesday. On Friday, wind generation is forecast to reach 3.6 GW during peak hours, according to spotrenewables.com.
In neighboring Germany, wind out-turn is due to double on the day to 16.7 GW at peak times, putting further downward pressure on French spot.
Otherwise, all other types of power generation rose Thursday in France, responding to an increase in demand, with nuclear generation 1 GW higher on the day at 50 GW and hydro up at 6.5 GW from 3.7 GW Wednesday.
Gas output was also up on the day, by 2.7 GW to 4 GW at peak times.
Domestic demand rebounded Thursday in France after the national Armistice Day holiday and was about 8.5 GW higher on the day in peak hour 12:00 at 59.5 GW, data from grid operator RTE showed.
On Friday demand was expected to be little changed at 60 GW in hour 12:00, RTE's load curve forecast showed.
Plant availability was slightly reduced Thursday, after EDF reduced the operational capacity at its 900 MW Tricastin-1 nuclear reactor in the south of France.
The plant is due to become fully operational again Friday morning before being taken offline for maintenance over the weekend, EDF said on its website.
