European daily wind production plunges, offshore below 1 GW

London — European daily wind power generation plunged Sept. 15, sending spot power prices to 2020 highs, data aggregated by WindEurope showed.

Europe's wind fleet, with over 200 GW installed of which over 20 GW is offshore, generated just 345 GWh on the day, averaging 14.4 GW with only April 26 and June 17 and 18 recording lower levels of output, the data aggregated from European TSOs show. Daily offshore generation hit a 2020 low of just 18 GWh.

Wind averaged 38 GW in the seven days to Sept. 13, up 14% week on week, with Sept. 13 seeing hourly prices in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark push into negative territory during the afternoon as wind and solar combined peaking at 117 GW early afternoon.

Fifty-five hours later, hourly prices spiked at Eur189/MWh for hour 20 on Sept. 16 across the region, with Denmark's day-ahead settling highest, Epex Spot data show.

WindEurope data shows only 13 GW of wind across Europe for that hour with the CWE plus Denmark and Great Britain accounting for only 5 GW.

Reduced nuclear availability saw a scramble for back-up plants, with intra-day prices spiking further across the regions with some prices reaching Eur800/MWh in Germany and France and GBP600/MWh in Great Britain, exchange data show.

Gas, hard-coal and lignite plants across the CWE region plus GB and Denmark reached 67 GW both during morning and evening peaks, while other fossil plants (fuel oil) were ramped up to 4.8 GW for evening peaks, likely setting the highest prices, with import transmission capacity into the tightest markets maxed out, the aggregated data show.

Spot prices eased already for Sept. 16, with wind forecast to pick up, while nuclear availability improved in France.

In September to date, wind output remains below September 2019 at 35 GW after July/August wind was higher year on year, WindEurope data show, with 2020 wind generation some 23 TWh ahead of 2019 at this stage.