German, French Day-Ahead Spread Widens

The German-French day ahead base-load contract widened its premium for delivery on 17 May despite upward revisions of German wind, with lower French nuclear and German lignite capacity expected. Temperatures in northwest Europe are practically unchanged on the day, remaining well above the 30-year norm- weighing on power demand in both regions.

• The German day-ahead spot settled at €69.01/MWh, sharply up from €49.56/MWh in the previous day.
• In contrast, the French day-ahead spot closed at just €43.27/MWh from €30.62/MWh in the previous day.
• Germany ended the session at a €25.74/MWh premium to the French equivalent, up from €18.94/MWh the previous day.
• Germany’s 1.05GW Neurath coal-fired power plant shut down today, with the unit disconnected until 18 May at 11:20 CET.
• Germany’s 447.5MW Emsland gas-fired power plant is also off line until 17 May.
• German wind output on 17 May was revised up by around 2.66GW on the day to 25.26GW, according to Spot Renewables.
• But wind forecasts in France on 17 May were unchanged on the day and are expected at just a 10% load factor, or 1.99GW.
• Temperatures across the northwest Europe on 17 May have been broadly unchanged on the day at ~15C – well above the 30-year norm of ~13C, according to Bloomberg.
• France’s 890MW Dampierre 2 nuclear reactor is operating at reduced capacity until 19 May. 910MW St Laurent 2 is ramping up output until 18 May. The 905MW Chinon 1 and the 1.33GW Paluel 3 reactors are scheduled to return this evening.
• French power demand is expected to reach a maximum of 52.15GW on Thursday and of 51.48GW on Friday.
• In Belgium, the 445MW Doel 2 nuclear reactor went offline this morning for 1.5 days for planned maintenance