This week, nearly all power and gas contracts dropped week-on-week, with only day-ahead power rising as record breaking temperatures increased cooling demand. Warmer temperatures also supported API 2 coal prices to a three-month high, which in turn saw higher demand for EUAs and lifted EU ETS carbon prices to a 13-year high just below €30/t. Support for EU ETS carbon prices has continued as August approaches, when auction volumes are due to halve to 33mn EUAs. Oil prices on the other hand were down slightly week-on-week, as slowing economic growth is expected to dampen demand for oil for the remainder of 2019. All gas contracts fell further, day-ahead gas was down 5.7% week-on-week to 27.9p/th, the lowest since 5 July. The gas system has remained oversupplied despite an unplanned outage at Langeled which resulted in flows dropping to zero. The end of this week’s heatwave on Friday also pressured prices as cooling demand dropped and there was therefore less gas for power demand as CCGT generation lowered. The day-ahead power contract was up 3.3% to end the week at £41.0/MWh, an increase of 13.6% from the same time last month (£36.1/MWh). Prices were supported by this week’s increase in cooling demand. On average, seasonal baseload power contracts were down 1.0% week-on-week, mirroring their gas counterparts. Winter 19 power dropped 2.6% to £56.4/MWh, up 2.3% from the last month (£52.4/MWh).
Baseload electricity | ||
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Forward curve comparison | Annual October Contract | |
Peak electricity | ||
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Forward curve comparison | Annual October contract | |
Seasonal power prices | ||
Seasonal baseload power contracts | Seasonal baseload power curve | |
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Commodity price movements | ||
Oil and Coal | Carbon | |
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Wholesale price snaphot |