London (Platts)--27Feb2013/914 am EST/1414 GMT

German day-ahead power prices fell Wednesday from one-month-highs as renewable power output was forecast to double and as temperatures across the region recovered to seasonal norms, a trader said.

Baseload power for day-ahead delivery was last heard OTC before noon London time Eur2.50 lower at Eur53.75/MWh, while peakload was last heard OTC Eur4.85 lower at Eur62.65/MWh.

Epex Spot settled Thursday just above OTC at Eur53.96/MWh for base, but below OTC at Eur62.16/MWh for peakload, a day-on-day drop of 12% on the exchange.

Thursday's most expensive hour fell 27% on the day to Eur72.83/MWh for hour 19, another sign that any tightness in the system was easing due to the falling demand and improved supply situation.

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"We are still in the upper range -- the last three days were the most expensive ones of the month and that's supporting March," a trader said.

Wind power generation was forecast to rise above 2 GW for Thursday's average baseload hours, while solar output was also seen above 3 GW for average peakload hours, according to a market source.

In conventional supply, available baseload plant capacity will be little changed Thursday with EEX transparency pegging nuclear at its full 12.1 GW, lignite at 20.1 GW and coal at 13.8 GW, giving Germany 46 GW baseload capacity before more expensive gas-fired units would be needed.

E.ON's 750 MW coal-fired plant at Wilhelmshaven was expected to return to the grid Friday following an unplanned outage, according to the utilities own transparency website.

Further out on the prompt, week-ahead contracts moved slightly lower to Eur41.55/MWh base and Eur51.05/MWh peakload.

On the curve, March base extended Tuesday's gains, up another 35 euro cent to Eur39.35/MWh, its highest level so far this month.

Further forward, Cal 14 base was heard trading unchanged from Tuesday's close at Eur41.85/MWh as EUA carbon allowances were also largely flat on the day by noon London time.

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