Prices must go up to account for permanently lower capacity
Nuclear policy is heavily disputed in Germany and the herve leger clothing issue has helped boost the Greens, which won control of one of the CDU’s stronghold states, Baden-Wuerttemberg, in a March vote.
Merkel’s majority in the Bundesrat upper house, where the states are represented, vanished last year after the CDU failed to hold onto the populous North Rhine-Westphalia state. Losing Baden-Wuerttemberg, a vote held in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, dealt another blow to Merkel’s authority.
Germany’s largest power provider RWE, which had suggested ending nuclear power in 2025, signaled its opposition to the deal. A spokesman for the company said the firm would keep “all legal options open.”
“The end (of nuclear power in Germany) by 2022 is not the date we had hoped for,” the spokesman said, declining to comment on the effect of the decision on the company’s earnings.
German baseload power in the wholesale market on Monday rose 70 cents from Friday to 60.20 euros a megawatt hour.
“Prices must go up to account for permanently lower capacity. Neighboring leger dress Europe will have to price in the potential absence of German power in case of unfavorable supply situations,” one trader said.
Shares in utilities E.ON and RWE fell 2.2 and 2.4 percent respectively at the open.
EIGHT WILL NOT REOPEN
The coalition wants to keep the eight oldest of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. Seven were closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. One has been off the grid for years.
Another six will be taken offline by 2021, Roettgen said.
The remaining three reactors, Germany’s newest, will stay open for another year until 2022 as a safety buffer to ensure no disruption to power supply, he said.
Before Merkel shut down the oldest plants for three months, Germany got 23 percent of its power from nuclear plants.
“It was self-evident for everyone that the stability of the network and the security of supplies must be guaranteed at every hour and at every level of electricity demand,” Roettgen said. “There will be no clause for revision.”
Some politicians had wanted a clause allowing for revision of the agreement in future. The Free Democrats, junior partners in Merkel’s center-right coalition, wanted no firm date but a flexible window for exit, plus the option of bringing back at least one of the seven oldest nuclear reactors in an emergency.
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