Europe Power-Cal '13 at four-week high on weather

Mon Jan 30, 2012

* German Cal '13 baseload at 52.70 eur/MWh
* Spot mixed, France up, Germany down
* Coal and gas prices higher

FRANKFURT, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Europe's power forwards curve continued a price recovery begun last week on signs of colder weather settling in and higher fuels prices, with the benchmark German Cal '13 contract at four week highs.Traders said that a firmer spot price trend needed to become visible for Germany before a lasting curve uptrend could be expected.

"There just have not been any surprising prompt prices all winter, any explosions there and the curve could jump as a matter of general power sentiment," one said.German baseload for delivery next year was at 52.70 euros a megawatt hour, up 45 cents from Friday's two-week high and the highest since Dec. 30's 53.25 euros level, according to Reuters data.French Cal '13 base was at 52.50 euros, up 1.35
euros from Friday.

The country is extremely sensitive to cold snaps as it relies more on electrical heaters than Germany which has a well established oil and gas-based heat infrastructure. Temperatures in the region will slide to minus 1 to minus 9 for the daytime maximum levels by Wednesday compared with a range of minus 4 to plus 2 degrees Celsius recorded on Sunday, according to a report by German met office DWD.

French Tuesday power jumped 1.25 euros compared with what was paid for Monday to 54.75 euros, at a 5.65 euros premium over Germany. Germany's day ahead delivery position eased 1.15 euros to 49.10 euros as greater demand was more than offset by projections for wind power capacity usage reaching 10,000 MW on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thermal plant outages were limited and the trend this week is anticipated for around 4 percent more capacity becoming available in the Germany/Austria region.

(sourced Reuters)