Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Windmills owned by Iberdrola
SA and Acciona SA, the worlds biggest operators,
may generate a record amount of electricity in
Spain next week that will slash local power prices,
calculations from Bloomberg weather data show.
An Atlantic Ocean storm is forecast to blow winds
averaging 17.6 miles an hour across the peninsula.
Lighter breezes, at 13.6 miles an hour, were enough
to set the previous record output three weeks
earlier. The extra supply then cut power prices 11
percent.
This will push the spot market lower next week,
Manuel Palomo, a Citigroup Global Markets analyst
in Madrid, said in an interview. Palomo covers
Spanish generators Iberdrola, Endesa SA and
Acciona, which own or run wind farms in five
continents.
Spain and Germany, the worlds biggest wind-energy
markets after the U.S., have changed the dynamics
for wholesale power trading by forcing sellers to
read weather reports. Because their fuel is free,
wind turbines undercut traditional generators that
burn coal, natural gas and oil.
The wind-speed measurements are calculated from a
composite of forecasts for Castile-La Mancha and
other regions, weighted by Bloomberg in proportion
to the number of turbines in each zone.
Wind has become a bigger factor in Germany and
Spain because they both subsidize rates for the
renewable energy and give producers preference to
sell in wholesale markets. Utilities that acquire
power, from Essen-based RWE AG in Germany to Union
Fenosa SA in Madrid, must buy any available wind
and solar power before tapping fossil-fuel plants.
Carbon Versus Wind
The two governments financial incentives spawned
an investment boom thats helping wean both nations
from carbon-based combustion, a source of
greenhouse gases that warm the planet.
In Germany, swings in wind speed can move power
prices as much as 10 percent.
Wind power can produce 15 to 20 gigawatts
sometimes, which is the equivalent of turning
several nuclear power plants on and off at one
time, Chris Panton, senior energy trader in Prague
at KIH Energy Trading GmbH, said today by telephone.
After adding 11 percent more wind-power capacity
last year, Spains one-day production record was
broken on Jan. 23. On that day winds swelled across
the nation, propelling turbines to generate 221
gigawatt-hours, or 27 percent of national demand
for homes and businesses.
The Atlantic storm next week is forecast to blow
winds across the plains of Spain at 29 percent
faster than in the previous record-output week of
Jan. 19-23.
Crude Effect
CIMD SA, a Madrid-based broker, offered yesterday
to buy power for working days next week at no more
than 37 euros a megawatt-hour, one of its brokers
said. Thats 11 percent below this weeks average
price. A megawatt-hour supplies about 1,500 Spanish
homes for 60 minutes.
London-based broker ICAP Plc said power for 24-hour
delivery on Feb. 9 fell 4.3 percent today to close
at 37.80 euros a megawatt-hour, a 15-month low.
Daily prices have already fallen more than 40
percent in the last six months, reflecting the
plunge in crude oil this year. Rates utilities pay
for natural gas, Spains second-largest fuel for
power plants, are linked to oil in supply contracts.
While gusty days can lower prices for generators,
they prefer them to still days, when their turbines
make no money at all.
Wind power in Spain is a relatively high-margin
business. Generators get paid a premium for wind
energy, money on top of the fixed price set by the
wholesale pool market thats paid to all kinds of
plants -- from coal and oil to gas or nuclear.
The premium is as much as twice the rate of
conventional power traded on the pool exchange.
Castile-La Mancha
Nearly two-thirds of wind generation is
concentrated in three parts of Spain. They are
Galicia, in the northwest, and the central regions
of Castile-La Mancha and Castile & Leon, according
to data from local trade group Asociacion
Empresarial Eolica.
Iberdrola and Acciona, with wind farms in four
continents, are the biggest wind-energy companies,
followed FPL Group, of Juno Beach, Florida,
according to the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy
Council.
The regional wind data is provided to Bloomberg by
San Francisco-based Custom Weather.