Demand for wind turbines in Germany is returning, despite a lower supply.

The European wholesale electricity price rose on Tuesday, as the demand increased from its low level during the Monday holiday.

LSEG's analysis predicted that Germany will be an importer in the near future, but noted on the negative side the fact that solar and coal energy volumes would increase.

The German baseload price for Wednesday was 17.7% higher at 73 Euros ($83.27 per megawatt-hour) at 0630 GMT.

The French baseload market was in the range of 23.5-28 euro bid-ask, closing at 28 euros/MWh.

LSEG data indicated that the German wind power production was expected to drop by 4.6 gigawatts per day to 15.5 GW, on Wednesday.

The German solar power generation was predicted to increase by 3.5 GW, to 17.4 GW.

The French nuclear capacity has increased by two percentage points to 71%.

On the demand-side, it is expected that power consumption will increase by 1.7 GW Wednesday to 54.1 GW and by 2.7 to 43.5 GW in France.

The German baseload power for the year ahead was not traded, closing at 88.3 Euros/MWh in a range of 69.9 to 88.35 Euros, whereas its French counterpart was also untraded after settling at 63.1 GW.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets fell 0.6% to 73.8 euros per metric ton.

The federal statistics office reported that Germany produced 119.4 Terawatt-hours of electricity in the first quarter. This is 1.9% less than it did a year ago. The federal statistics office cited the drop in wind speed as a major factor that led to higher imports.

The conventional energy, mainly gas, accounted for 50.5%, a volume increase of 19.3% year-on-year.

In an article published online, Timera Energy reported that implied returns for a variety of gas-fired plants in Europe had been increasing over the past 3-5 years. This was due to lower acquisition costs and investment opportunities. Reporting by Vera Eckert and Editing by Tasimzahid. $1 = 0.8767 Euros

(source: Reuters)