May power auction prices at Eastern Europe's borders higher on year

Power capacity prices for May on Eastern European borders were markedly higher year on year in auctions held by the Joint Allocation Office over April 19-21.

The May Czech-German baseload price settled at 66 euro cent/MWh (72 cents/MWh), up from 12 euro cent/MWh a year ago. The auction was one of biggest held by JAO in the region.

JAO allocated all of the offered 485 MW of capacity, up from 350 MW for May 2021. Requested capacity was still much higher at over 5 GW. A total of 34 participants took part in the auctions with 20 obtaining capacity, JAO said.

Czech May prices have been trading firmly above Germany, with the premium averaging about Eur5.17/MWh over April 1-20, EEX data showed. That was up from a premium of Eur2.34/MWh during the same period of 2021.

Similarly, Hungarian premium to Germany rose steeply on the year and averaged Eur12.5/MWh this month so far, up from about Eur6.4/MWh a year ago.

The May Czech-Slovakian baseload price settled at Eur5.76/MWh, up from Eur2.11MWh a year ago. JAO allocated all of the offered 350 MW of capacity, up from 261 MW for May 2021. Requested capacity was still much higher at almost 3.4 GW.

Another considerable capacity for May of 300 MW was allocated for Slovakia-Hungary, with the prices stepping up to Eur5.25/MWh from Eur1.06/MWh a year earlier. Requested volumes for the direction totaled nearly 3.7 GW.