PARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - European power contracts for day-ahead delivery rose on Thursday, buoyed by forecasts for tight nuclear availability due to a prolonged heatwave, and increased consumption in France.
Hot weather makes it harder for nuclear plants to cool reactors, forcing some to cut output.
* French baseload spot power price for Friday delivery was up 7.3 percent at 63.85 euros ($74.14) a megawatt hour (MWh).
* The German contract rose 6.3 percent to 62.75 euros/MWh .
* Weather-related curtailment at France’s Bugey and St. Alban nuclear plant and an outage at the 1,300 megawatt (MW) Paluel 2 reactor were driving gains in spot prices, a trader said.
* EDF, which operates France’s 58 nuclear reactors, said on Wednesday that forecasts of high temperatures in the Rhone River could lead to the shutdown four nuclear reactors from Aug. 3.
* Grid operator RTE’s data showed on Thursday that production was reduced at the Bugey 3 reactor by 665 MW, while the 1,300 megawatt St. Alban facility 1 is expected to be offline until Aug. 4.
* In Germany, utility E.ON said its 1,486 MW Isar 2 reactor will go offline on Friday for repairs to a turbine part. Overall, less than three percent of German nuclear capacity is currently not operating.
* German wind power generation is also expected to slip by around 500 MW on Friday to 2 GW.
* On the demand side, French electricity consumption is expected to rise by 830 MW to 48.2 gigawatts (GW). Average temperatures were expected to rise by nearly 2 degrees Celsius, increasing demand for cooling.
* German demand on Friday is expected dip to 61 GW from 62.3 GW the previous day as businesses close ahead of the weekend.
* Along the year-ahead power curve, contracts for 2019 delivery fell, tracking a drop in carbon, coal and gas prices.
* The benchmark German Cal’19 year-ahead delivery contract dipped 0.6 percent to 43.75 euros/MWh.
* The French year-ahead contract was down 0.3 percent at 48.75 euros/MWh.
* European carbon permits for December 2018 expiry fell 0.7 percent to 17.65 euros a tonne.
* European delivery AP12 coal for import in 2019 slipped 1.4 percent to $84.30 a tonne close.
* In eastern Europe, Czech day-ahead spot, which mirrors the German position, gained 6.2 percent to 62.70 euros/MWh. The Czech year-ahead fell 0.6 percent to 45.10 euros/MWh.
