Mid-Day Summary: France August Falls on Export Curbs

French August and September power base-load contracts have fallen sharply after RTE announced exports curbs on the French eastern borders, while neighbouring markets are trading higher amid potential export cuts and gains in the wider energy complex.

• France Base Power AUG 24 down 8.1% at 46 EUR/MWh
• Germany Base Power AUG 24 up 3.6% at 74.46 EUR/MWh
• EUA DEC 24 up 2.7% at 67.48 EUR/MT
• TTF Gas AUG 24 up 2.2% at 32.325 EUR/MWh
• Rotterdam Coal AUG 24 up 1.8% at 111.55 USD/MT
• Front month TTF is rebounding today supported by LNG competition with Egypt issuing a new LNG buying tender.
• EU ETS Dec24 is further recovering today, rising above this week’s range supported by gains in the European gas market as prices have seemed to have bottomed out on Monday. Investment funds positioning in EU ETS futures on the ICE exchange turned more bearish last week with net short positioning rising to the highest since the week ending 12 April, latest COT data as of 19 July showed.
• Epex has stated that the market coupling process has “encountered severe technical issues” on 24 July, which has impacted the Czech bidding zone, with shadow auctions taking place as a fallback solution.
• European coal demand is forecast to decline by 19% to 287mn tons this year, after falling by 23% last year according to the IEA.
• RTE is expecting to reduce power exports on France’s eastern borders – Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy - from 29 July until mid-October, RTE said late on Tuesday.
• EdF may extend planned outages at three reactors by an average of 30 days in 2025 after issues linked to stress corrosion in 2023, it said.
• EU power demand is still struggling to recover with consumption in the first half of this year increasing only by 1%, or 11TWh, on the year according to ICIS.
• Investment funds net short positions in ICE German power futures ended its two-week bullish trend to turn the most bearish since 24 May, according to the latest COT data for the week of 19 July.
• RWE’s power generation in the first half of this year declined to 58.9TWh, down from 67.6TWh for the same period last year, while renewables output increased by 19.13% on the year to 26.22TWh, the firm said.
• Spanish Iberdrola's battery storage pipeline for the next five years is over 3GW, with plans to increase its operating offshore wind capacity by around 2.5GW in the next two years.
• Ukraine has reconnected a nuclear unit to the grid ahead of schedule that was undergoing repairs, in the hope to reduce power cuts, the energy ministry said, cited by Reuters.