German day-ahead power prices climbed higher Wednesday as wind output was set to drop sharply for a second consecutive day, ahead of further temperature declines which will likely increase demand.
Baseload power for Wednesday delivery was last heard trading OTC at Eur25.35/MWh, Eur1.35 above where Wednesday power closed on Tuesday, while peakload was Eur1.55 above Tuesday's assessment of Wednesday at Eur25.70/MWh.
Epex Spot meanwhile settled Thursday above OTC at Eur26.59/MWh baseload and Eur27.70/MWh peakload.
Wind output was forecast to nearly halve and drop below 5 GW for average baseload hours Thursday, down from around 10 GW Wednesday, according to market sources.
Nuclear availability for Thursday was set to remain unchanged at 6.6 GW with three reactors still offline for maintenance, leaving five reactors online, according to plant operator data.
Availability of coal and lignite plants was pegged unchanged at 31 GW for Thursday, EEX Transparency data showed.
Colder weather has already lifted demand this week with temperatures across Germany up to 4 degrees Celsius below seasonal norms in the second half of the week, CustomWeather data showed, while temperatures could fall as much as 10 C below the norm over the weekend and into next week.
The weekend contract was heard at Eur19.80/MWh Wednesday morning, up 50 euro cent on the day, while the week-ahead contract dipped below Eur24/MWh for the first time this week.
Price gains further out on the prompt were capped by the expected return of the Grohnde reactor from maintenance this weekend, according to plant operator data.
