German spot on a weaker demand and lower renewables in France

The European spot power prices on the two major markets showed mixed trends on Thursday. In France, the price rose due to a tighter renewables' supply while in Germany the price fell because of weak demand.

The French day-ahead position for baseload power rose 63.4% to 67 euros per Megawatt Hour (MWh) at 845 GMT, but it remained below the German equivalent contract.

The German equivalent price was bid at 70 Euros/MWh but remained untraded after closing at 77.5 Euros.

LSEG data revealed that French wind production was expected to drop by 8.6 gigawatts on a daily basis to reach 5.8 GW and Germany's was expected to lose 2.2 GW in order to reach 30.2 GW the next day.

In the same time period, solar generation in both countries was due to decline by 1.4 GW.

The French nuclear capacity, on the other hand, increased by three percentage points over night, to 87%.

The demand side declined, reflecting a slowdown in the industrial sector at year's end.

The German power consumption is expected to drop by?1.9 GW, to 60.0 GW this Friday. In France, it will be down 500 MW at 57.8 GW.

The German baseload contract for the year ahead, which settled at 85.3 Euros/MWh in December, did not change, nor did a similar French contract that had previously settled?at 50.3 Euros.

The benchmark 2026 carbon contract on the European market fell 0.4%, trading at 86.43 euro per metric ton.

Germany will export 60 billion?kilowatts-hours (kWh) abroad in 2025, and import 78 billion kWh. This means that Germany will remain a net energy importer for a third consecutive year, according to data from the statistics group AGEB, and the energy industry association BDEW. Vera Eckert and Joe Bavier edited the report.

(source: Reuters)