London (Platts)--25Mar2011/946 am EDT/1346 GMT

German OTC weekend power prices were bearish Friday trading close to pre-Japan crisis levels as power imports from France and a strong solar power forecast especially for Sunday combined with low demand to keep the system comfortably supplied, a trader said.

Baseload power for delivery this weekend was last heard at Eur49.50/MWh by 12:00 London time, down 85 euro cent from Thursday's close and Eur3.50 below last weekend's level. Saturday last traded at Eur52/MWh, while Sunday was last heard at Eur48.50/MWh. But EPEX Spot closed the baseload price for Saturday at Eur54.92/MWh, almost Eur3 above OTC and some Eur2 above its French equivalent.

Baseload power for Monday delivery was last heard at Eur58.70/MWh, Eur3.45 above where the Friday contract was last traded on Thursday, while peakload for Monday was Eur4.75 above Friday's price at Eur64.25/MWh. "We are almost back to normal levels [before the Japan crisis prompted the government to halt seven older reactors]," a trader said. "The situation in France is very relaxed, there will be a lot of solar on Sunday. Saturday on the exchange surprised a bit on the upside, which probably shows that the plants are now run in a more market-orientated manner again." Wind power output was forecast to drop from a 6 GW average on Friday to just 1 GW for Saturday and only slightly higher on Sunday, a market source said, adding that hydro levels were forecast to rise in the Alps. Solar power output was seen lower for Saturday, but higher for Sunday, rising once more to peaks above 10 GW for midday hours on Sunday, the source said. Germany's wind and solar capacity has risen above 40 GW, more than twice the country's nuclear power capacity.

Power plant availability was seen 2.6 GW lower at 55.1 GW Saturday, recovering to 57.1 GW by Monday, according to EEX's transparency website.

Nuclear capacity will drop further this weekend as E.ON's 1,300 MW Grafenrheinfeld reactor will come offline for planned maintenance, adding to the seven reactors halted under the government's three-month nuclear moratorium, removing some 6,000 MW or almost a third of nuclear capacity from the market.

Further out on the prompt, week-ahead base was heard just 10 euro cent lower at Eur53.90/MWh with little fundamental change in the weather outlook, a trader said.

Contracts on the near curve eased further on the bearish prompt, with April base down 85 euro cent to Eur56.10/MWh and Q2 base 65 euro cent lower at Eur56.10/MWh. Further forward, Cal 12 base was just a touch lower at Eur58.10/MWh as feedstock fuels were little changed near their two-year highs for coal and gas.

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