Prompt up sharply on steep drop in French nuclear availability
FRANKFURT, Aug 15 (Reuters) -European prompt power prices rose strongly on Thursday as nuclear capacity availability in France dropped by seven percentage points from Wednesday, owing to heat-related restrictions on river-based reactors.
A day-on-day demand recovery in France was also behind the upwards direction.
The country will see more industrial activity again on Friday, being closed for the Assumption Day holiday on Thursday. The holiday only affects parts of Germany.
"After the holiday, demand is rising in (the) surrounding central western European area, lifting residual load," said LSEG analyst Markus Eriksson.
French day-ahead TRFRBD1 delivery baseload was up 48% at 64.8 euros ($71.34) at 0745 GMT.
Germany's day-ahead contract did not trade early but saw an asking price of 98 euros/MWh TRDEBD1, having closed at 88.8 euros.
French nuclear availability stood at 68% of installed capacity, seven points down.POWER/FR
LSEG forecasts for German and French wind and solar power output were up across the board for Friday, counteracting some of the nuclear supply gaps.
Power consumption in Germany is expected to ease to 53.7 gigawatts (GW) on Friday, down by 1.1 GW due to pre-weekend demand.
France, on the other hand, stands to use 40.2 GW of power on Friday, compared with 35.3 GW the previous day, LSEG data showed.
Temperatures in southeast Europe are expected to remain above normal, supporting power price peaks, said Swiss utility Axpo in a monthly European market newsletter.
It noted that Swiss hydro power reservoirs are high, meeting some of Italy's increased demand usually also met by French exports.
Separately, significant losses in global financial markets have dampened optimism about an economic recovery, Axpo said.
German year-ahead power TRDEBYZ5 was broadly unchanged at 98.3 euros/MWh, while the French 2025 baseload contract TRFRBYZ5 was untraded after a settlement at 83.1 euros.
European CO2 allowances for December 2024 CFI2Zc1 were 0.7% off at 71.34 euros a metric ton.
($1 = 0.9083 euros)
Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Toby Chopra
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