French nuclear outages lift French, German, Spanish spot prices to fresh highs

French nuclear outages lifted spot prices Monday in France and neighboring countries to year-to-date highs as lower renewables added support.

In France day-ahead base traded at Eur69/MWh, while peak was at Eur74.25/MWh, at around 11:00 am London time Monday. This was the highest French spot price since March 2. EPEX spot settled the French day-ahead at Eur67.36/MWh for base, Eur73.73/MWh for peak.

German day-ahead baseload was last at Eur67/MWh, while peak reached Eur72.50/MWh in the over-the-counter market. At the exchange, spot prices hit their highest level in nearly nine months at Eur66.45MWh (base), last seen higher when EPEX recorded Eur67.57/MWh on November 30, 2017.

UK day-ahead prices hit a five-month high on the back of bullish continental prices and low wind forecast during peakload times, National Grid data showed. At 11:00 am London time, the day-ahead baseload rose by nearly GBP2/MWh at GBP65/MWh -- hitting the highest assessed since March 12 when it stood at GBP69.65/MWh. The peakload counterpart rose above GBP7/MWh on day to GBP75/MWh -- this was the highest since March 2 when the contract was at GBP82/MWh.

Wind generation output during peak times is set for just over 5 GW for Tuesday, rising from Sunday's 1.5 GW, Grid data showed.

Spanish spot prices were trading at Eur69.50/MWh for Tuesday delivery on the OTC Monday before 11:00 am London time, while the OMIE pool settled at Eur66.14/MWh the highest since August 6.

This is the highest day-ahead delivery price since December 13 on nuclear outages in France and low wind output in Spain.

Spanish wind output is set to fall to 2 GW Tuesday during morning peakload hours, after it was seen as high as 7 GW Monday, with power demand set to rise from a peak of 34.2 GW Monday to 35.2 GW Tuesday, according to Red Electrica de Espana.

French nuclear outages are set to cut availability by almost 9 GW in the coming days, EDF Remit data shows.