Heatwave expected to increase French demand

The heatwave expected in France will have a positive effect on electricity consumption, but it could also hurt nuclear power production due to high river temperatures that hinder cooling at nuclear reactors.

LSEG data shows that the German and French Monday basis power contracts were not traded by 846 GMT.

Baseload prices on Friday closed at 76.75 Euros/MWh compared to 54.75 Euros/MWh on Thursday.

LSEG data indicated that German wind power production was expected to drop by 4.8 GW and reach 4.7 GW while French wind generation was projected by 3.5 GW and reach 5.2 GW.

The data revealed that the German solar energy supply is expected to increase by 2.8 GW and reach 19.4 GW.

On Monday, Germany's power consumption is expected to drop by 770 megawatts to 49.2 GW while France's demand is forecast to increase by 1.8 GW at 42.4 GW. This is due to a predicted rise in temperatures of 3.1 degrees Celsius.

Meteo France, a French weather forecaster, has predicted that temperatures in France will peak on Tuesday and then fall to levels similar to Monday on Wednesday and Thursday.

The French nuclear capacity fell by one percentage point, to 75% total, as the Blayais 3 Reactor went offline for planned maintenance.

EDF, the operator of the reactor, said that the reactor had been turned off in order to modulate the power supply. This was done to make sure the grid wasn't overloaded. A restart depends on the economic conditions.

Next week, several French nuclear power plants will be experiencing reduced power supply due to rising temperatures of river water in the south.

The German power contract for the year ahead rose by 0.7%, to 86.82 Euros ($101.10) per Megawatt Hour (MWh), while France's baseload 2026 contract was not traded with a bid of 62 Euros/MWh.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets rose by 1.3%, to 72.71 Euros per metric ton.

(source: Reuters)