London (Platts)--10Sep2012/918 am EDT/1318 GMT

German prompt power prices moved higher Monday despite an above average wind power forecast as a lack of solar power output and strong cross-border demand from France due to the ongoing tight nuclear situation supported prices, a trader said.

Baseload power for delivery on Tuesday was last heard before 12:00 London time at Eur53.35/MWh for base, 85 euro cent above where Monday power last traded on Friday. Peakload power was 50 euro cent higher at Eur58.75/MWh.

Epex Spot settled the Tuesday contract just above OTC at Eur53.52/MWh for base, while peakload cleared 68 euro cent above the last OTC trade at Eur59.43/MWh.

"It seems to be more demand driven," a trader said. "Wind is set to rise strongly and that should move the spot more than the drop in solar, but the nuclear situation in France remains tight and there seems to be enough [cross-border] demand to keep prices at the higher level."

"But price will definitely drop toward the second half of the week with even more wind forecast," he added.

Wind power generation was forecast to rise to an above average 7 GW for Tuesday's average baseload hours, according to a market source.

However, solar output was forecast to halve to just 5 GW for average peakload hours on Tuesday, the source said.

According to the source, renewable forecasts for the coming days were very volatile with possibly 27 GW of combined wind and solar for Friday peakload hours.

Temperatures were forecast to drop sharply over coming days with the warm air retreating towards the east and CustomWeather pegging Dusseldorf at 1 degrees Celsius above the norm Tuesday, but 3 C below Wednesday, while Berlin was forecast to drop from 7 C above Tuesday to 1 C below Wednesday.

Nuclear availability in Germany was expected to drop to 10.3 GW from Saturday with the 1.3 GW Neckarwestheim 2 reactor expected to come offline for a maintenance outage, plant operator EnBW said on its website.

On the near curve, October base was 60 euro cents higher at Eur49.65/MWh, while Q4 base added 30 euro cents to Eur51.20/MWh.

Further forward, Cal 13 base traded just 5 euro cent higher at Eur49.25/MWh by 12:00 London time.

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