German, Day-Ahead Delivery Climbs to Weekly High

The German and French day-ahead baseload contracts rose on the day, with higher prices in Germany seen amid lower load factors of wind compared to France – pushing German power costs to their greatest settlement this week, while hourly prices climbed above €240/MWh

• The German day-ahead spot settled at €108.04/MWh from €85.53/MWh on the previous day.
• The French day-ahead spot cleared at €75.30/MWh from €42.18/MWh on the previous day.
• The hourly prices in Germany reached as high as €243.12/MWh for hour 20-21 up from €160.30/MWh for the same hour in the previous session.
• In comparison, hourly prices in France were between €50.72/MWh and €119.99/MWh.
• German wind is expected at 7.11GW on 16 August and will slightly fall from the weekend to be between 6-12% load factors over 19-20 August (Monday-Tuesday). Wind will then pick up the next day to a 15% load factor – which could weigh on prices from the previous day.
• German power demand over 16-17 August is forecasted between 44.6-52.4GW over the period- down from 53.9GW forecast for today, ECMWF shows. Demand will then increase between 51.4-52.8GW over 19-20 August from 41.5GW on 18 August – possibly supporting delivery cost.
• In France, wind forecast point to output at 2.70GW, or 14% load factor on 16 August, dropping from the weekend to be at 11% load factor on 19 August - likely placing the FR day-ahead at a discount to DE, although, supporting domestic power prices.
• And France's nuclear reactors were at around 68% of capacity on Thursday, down sharply from 75% on Wednesday, according to TSO RTE.