Power price weaker

European power prices weakened in April despite a 30 per cent year-over-year decline in nuclear power output in Germany, according to data released by S&P Global Platts, the leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets.

Continental (CONTI) European day-ahead prices, as valued by the S&P Global Platts CONTI Index, declined 2.7 per cent to €25.13 per megawatt hour (MWh) in April compared to March. On a year-over-year basis, the index was down 30.25 per cent.

In the natural gas market, continental European prices edged down nearly two per cent as April turned into a tale of two halves: the first characterised by sub-€12.00/MWh prices on bearish weather sentiment, the second witnessing a rally as temperatures cooled.

With European power prices remaining weak into May, “what we are seeing are well-supplied generation markets shrugging off steep declines in conventional, ‘dispatchable’ power plant capacity,” said Platts Power in Europe Managing Editor Henry Edwardes-Evans.

“Longer term, however, failings in electricity market design, which is prone to national distortions, will see cracks appear in system reliability unless the European Commission and European Union Member States act in unison and move decisively to complete the single market.”