Day Ahead Prices Gain on More Demand

Posted by Michelle Howard September 8, 2014

Expectations for rising consumption and lower solar supply boosted Czech and Slovak day ahead power on Monday as a power plant outage pushed Hungarian prices well above those of its regional peers, traders said.

On regional exchanges, Czech and Slovak electricity for Tuesday rose nearly 1 percent higher to 36.34 euros ($47.01) per megawatt-hour while Hungarian spot prices soared almost 21 percent to 55.37 euros.

"There is a planned outage at a plant on the Hungarian and Slovak border, so supply is tight in Hungary," one trader in the region said.

Data from Thomson Reuters Point Carbon also showed that consumption was forecast to increase in the region, with a rise in wind generation in Germany to 3.6 gigawatts (GW) offseting a fall in solar output to 4.5 GW.

Further along the curve, the Czech front month gained 40 cents to 34.5 euros, while Hungarian power for October edged 5 cents higher to 46.2 euros in over-the-counter trade.

There were no Cal '15 Czech or Hungarian contracts seen exchanging hands in the over-the-counter market.

Around the region, the benchmark German Cal '15 contract climbed 16 cents higher to 35.62 euros on Germany's EEX exchange in afternoon trade.

The Polish Power Exchange is looking to offer electricity futures contracts starting in 2015 to speed development of the power market in eastern Europe's biggest economy. Day ahead power on the POLPX exchange rose to 205.28 zlotys ($63.55) from 197.60 zlotys.

Poland's utilities will have about 5 GW of power offline for planned maintenance on Wednesday, data from grid operator PSE showed.

Brent crude oil slid below $100 a barrel for the first time in 14 months as Chinese and U.S. data pointed to slower than expected growth in the world's top oil consumers.

European Union carbon futures rose 1 cent to 6.29 euros a tonne in afternoon trading.