European day-ahead power prices rose on Tuesday, lifted by Monday’s announcements about capacity losses at France’s Gravelines nuclear reactor and news that the Bugey nuclear plant is expected to restrict output.
A heatwave in France has led to multiple warnings of power cuts at reactors due to higher water temperatures used for cooling systems. In the case of Gravelines, a swarm of jellyfish clogged up filter drums.
French baseload power for Wednesday (TRFRBD1) was up 18.9% at 93.8 euros ($108.94) per megawatt-hour at 0730 GMT, while the equivalent German contract (TRDEBD1) had an asking price of 95.8 euros/MWh, having closed at 89.3 euros.
French nuclear availability fell another two percentage points to 67% of installed capacity, having dropped six points on Monday.
Higher temperatures are driving increased demand for air conditioning, although August is the main holiday month in France which weighs on demand.
August will be largely drier and warmer than normal over the continent, but will return to a more seasonable pattern later, according to an LSEG meteorological analysis.
In renewable supply, German wind power output was expected to rise to 8.1 gigawatts from 7.1 GW day-on-day, while that in France was set to fall to 1.9 GW from 3.6 GW, LSEG data showed.
Solar generation was seen dipping in both countries.
Demand was flat overall, with holidays beginning to end in some parts of Germany.
The country’s power use was forecast to increase to 52.3 GW from 52.0 day-on-day, while that in France was set to fall 200 MW to 45.2 GW.
German year-ahead baseload (TRDEBYZ6) edged up 0.6% to 86.7 euros/MWh, while the French equivalent (TRFRBYZ6) was bid at 59.5 euros after closing at 61.8 euros.
($1 = 0.8610 euros)