UK prompt power prices fell sharply on Friday to close the week on a bearish note following a strong rally at the start of week 38, as weakening gas prices and forecasts for rising wind output weighed on the contracts.
On the OTC market, the baseload power for Monday delivery shed more than a pound in value and was last heard trading at GBP43.25/MWh, while the Monday peakload contract fell GBP1.95 to GBP46.50/MWh on Friday.
The UK's baseload day-ahead auction outturned near price levels seen during the previous days' auctions at GBP44.73/MWh but higher than the OTC price, according to data from N2EX and APX exchanges on Friday.
Wednesday and Thursday auction results came in at GBP44.08/MWh and GBP44.76/MWh respectively on both the exchanges.
Meanwhile, UK's National Grid expects wind power generation to jump to nearly 2 GW on Saturday, above Friday's peak wind forecast of 892 MW, increasing surplus margins.
Market sources also said that wind output is expected to remain strong over the weekend, dip slightly on Monday but pick up to around 1.5 GW and 3 GW by mid-week.
However at the time of writing, power generated from wind stood at 204 MW at midday Friday, down from 678 MW seen at midday Thursday, according to the grid data.
Also at midday Friday, gas-fired power dominated the energy mix in the UK with CCGTs contributing 16.8 GW of electricity to the grid, whereas power from coal plants fell to 13.5 GW, down from 15.1 GW at midday Thursday.
Nuclear and French exports remained stable at 5.7 GW and 1.5 GW respectively, while solar and wind output stood at 386 MW and 408 MW at midday Friday.
On the gas hub, the NBP within-day contract fell 0.10 pence/therm to 49.70 p/th, while the front-month October fell to 51.25 p/th, down 0.35 p/th at 11:00 am London time.
