German spot is up due to low wind, while French spot falls because of easing demand.

On Wednesday, European wholesale power prices were mixed. France saw lower spot trades while Germany's bid/ask indicators rose on the back of predictions that wind production would be halved.

At 0815 GMT, the French baseload was down 19% at 46 euros ($53.85 per megawatt-hour).

After closing at 93.8 Euros/MWh, the equivalent German contract did not trade in the indicated range of 94-97 euros.

LSEG's research shows that on the supply side of things, Germany's wind power output is expected to drop from 12.7 GW to 6.2 GW per day.

The French nuclear capacity has fallen by two percentage points, to 81%.

Axpo, the Swiss operator, confirmed that on Tuesday its Beznau reactors are now working. Last week, the heatwave led to the shutdown of the two 365 MW units. This was due to the restrictions placed on the water released into the Aare River following the cooling cycles.

On Thursday, power demand in Germany is expected to decline by 700 MW to 53.0GW and in France to 44.1GW.

The curve shows that the German baseload for the year ahead was almost unchanged, at 86.4 Euro/MWh.

After settling at 63.2 euro, the equivalent French contract untraded at a bid of 61.9 euros.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets increased by 0.1%, to 70.51 Euros per metric ton.

Ifo Institute said that the German government's refusal to reduce the electricity tax for retail customers to the European average, as promised during the election campaign in early this year, would be detrimental to sentiment and the GDP.

(source: Reuters)