French Day-Ahead Hourly Delivery Falls Below €5/MWh

The German and French day-ahead baseload contracts dropped on the day amid firm wind and solar forecasts, with some hourly delivery prices in France reaching as low as €4.84/MWh - leading to France remaining at a discount to Germany. But French wind is expected to drop on 24 July, while German wind will slightly increase – possibly widening the FR-DE spread.

• The German day-ahead spot settled at €79.51/MWh from €91.23/MWh on the previous day.
  
• The French day-ahead spot cleared at €53.88/MWh from €57.61/MWh on the previous day.
• The hourly prices in France were between €4.84-105.11/MWh compared to Germany at between €36.01-120.51/MWh.
• German wind is expected at 9.46GW, or a 15% load factor on 23 July and will rise the next day to be at a 16% load factor (Tuesday). Wind will then drop on 25 July to just a 5% load factor – which could lift prices from the previous days.
• German power demand over 23-26 July has been revised up by around 360MW on the day, with demand forecasted between 51.6-53.4GW over the period, ECMWF shows.
• In France, wind forecast point to output at 4.86GW, or a 24% load factor on 23 July and dropping to 8% load factors over 24-26 July - likely increasing domestic power costs and widening the FR-DE Spread.
• French nuclear availability rose to 73% as of Monday morning, up from 71% on 19 July, RTE data showed, cited by Bloomberg.
• EdF has started its Cruas 4 and Golfech 2 units and has brought forward the outage at its 1.49GW Civaux 1 reactor by 9 days, with the unit returning on 26 July.