French spot falls as nuclear supply goes up, German prompt firms

European wholesale electricity prices were mixed on Tuesday, with France's day-ahead position pressured by higher nuclear availability and nearby German positions rising, already at a premium.

LSEG research cited a decrease in German solar power output as bullish for the market.

French demand was increasing, it noted, which presently import-reliant Germany will not be able to help meet, although that country will tap more of its coal and gas generation units.

French baseload power for Wednesday (TRFRBD1) was 7.1% down at 58.5 euros ($68.37) per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0830 GMT.

The equivalent German contract (TRDEBD1) was untraded, but at an asking price of 97.3 euros/MWh, 46% above the previous close of 66.5 euros.

The German Thursday delivery contract (TRDEBD2) gained 50% at 104.8 euros.

French nuclear availability rose by four percentage points overnight to stand at 82% of installed capacity.

German solar output was seen falling to 13.9 gigawatts (GW) on the day-ahead from a projected 15.3 GW on Tuesday, while its wind output was due to rise insignificantly to 10.6 GW from 9.7 GW in the same period.

On the demand side, usage will likely edge higher by 600 MW to reach 52.9 GW in Germany, and add 1.4 GW in France to hit 45.5 GW on Wednesday, supported by locally high temperatures.

The top end of Germany's temperature range will go up to 27-30 degrees Celsius come Thursday and Friday, from 25 degrees now, the German Meteorological Office DWD said in a research note. But the warm weather will be interspersed with frequent rain as low-pressure fronts rule.

German year-ahead baseload power (TRDEBYZ6) shed 0.7% to 86.8 euros/MWh while the French equivalent (TRFRBYZ6) was bid at 62.7 euros, having settled at 65.5 euros.

In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract was 0.4% zo at 70.69 euros a metric ton.

($1 = 0.8557 euros)