OMV Petrom, Romanian arm of Austria's OMV, boosted its third-quarter power output on the year, spurred by higher spark spreads. Full-year generation is now on track exceed both 2019's level and the firm's 2020 target.

Output at the 860MW Brazi gas-fired plant totalled 1.31TWh in July-September — averaging 593MW — against 1TWh a year earlier and 0.56TWh in the previous quarter. The plant accounted for around 10pc of Romania's generation and sold 0.05TWh of its output on the regulated market at a fixed rate of 223 lei/MWh (€45.75/MWh) in the third quarter.

Brazi ramped up as a result of "positive" spark spreads, OMV Petrom said. The Romanian day-ahead delivered, on average, at €40.21/MWh in July-September, down from €58.69/MWh in the same period a year earlier. This was also below market expectations for the period, with Romanian third-quarter base load expiring at 202.50 lei/MWh (€41.54/MWh) in the over-the-counter (OTC) market at the end of June.

But output costs at OMV Petrom's Romanian gas fields might have declined on the year, which would have weighed on Brazi's marginal costs. The firm could have also secured carbon allowances to cover Brazi's greenhouse gas emissions at a lower price than a year earlier.

Brazi's January-September output reached 2.99TWh, just 0.41TWh below total generation for the whole of 2019. OMV Petrom expects 2020 output to exceed last year's 3.4TWh, having revised up from a previous estimate of 3.1TWh.

The plant's output might be lower on the quarter in October-December as Brazi was offline on 12-25 October for maintenance postponed from the second quarter. At the same time, Romania's reintroduction of Covid-19 measures could weigh on demand until the end of this year, which could limit Brazi's generation.

source:argusmedia.com