German power production from coal and gas-fired plants dropped below 1 TWh for the first 

time  on  record  last week, with demand hit by a holiday last Monday and as solar and wind 

peaked at a new high of 52 GW Wednesday. 

Also, there  was  steady  baseload  supply  from lignite and nuclear power plants as well as 

reduced Alpine demand due to increased hydro production, an analysis of power generatio

n data showed. 

Output  from  coal-fired power plants was 0.67 TWh in week 23, according to transparency 

data aggregated by Fraunhofer ISE, with only the Christmas week in 2015 registering a low

er coal plant output over recent years. 

Output from major CCGT gas plants that report under transparency rules was 0.32 TWh, th

e lowest weekly production since August 2015 and only minimal additional CHP demand wit

h many smaller plants not required to report, the data showed. 

Beyond the Whitsun Monday holiday, the key reason for the downward trend was a surge in 

wind power last week with combined wind and solar production. 

Overall,  wind generated 2.1 TWh last week, a seven-week-high, with solar adding 1.4 TWh 

and other renewables (biomass, hydro) boosting output to 4.8 TWh, the weekly data showed. 

Nuclear production reached a 2017-high last week with 1.5 TWh, while lignite plants provided 

a stable 2.4 TWh baseload output. 

Drilling  into  the  hourly data for Wednesday, the solar and wind peaks also impacted lignite 

plants  amid  hourly  prices  turning  negative, ramping  down  to 9 GW during the afternoon 

compared  to 15 GW during evening peakload with nuclear output ramping down by just 1.6 

GW from a 9 GW peak, hourly data by EEX Transparency shows. 

Weekly  load and demand  was fairly stable compared with week 23 in previous years at 8.9 

TWh, the data showed, with export demand falling to a 2017 low amid reduced demand from 

Austria and Switzerland due to improved hydro production amid the seasonal snow melt.