EON SE FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German utility E.ON (>> E.ON SE) has sold parts of its German nuclear plant output at below market prices up to 2019, boding ill for earnings prospects in that segment, it showed in presentation slides ahead of a call with analysts on Wednesday.
The slides, presented with the release of 2016 financial results, put achieved 2017 prices at 32 euros ($34.04) a megawatt-hour, 2018 at 27 euros, and 2019 at 25 euros.
By comparison, Thomson Reuters wholesale market prices for baseload electricity to be delivered in 2018 were at 29.75 euros
Apart from being an indication of earnings, the hedge rates are tracked by wholesale energy traders to assess the size of future volumes already tied up with counterparties such as traders, banks and consumers, and the value of forward production.
E.ON's operates three nuclear power stations in Germany, Brokdorf, Isar 2 and Grohnde, that were bundled in a unit called Preussen Elektra and stayed with E.ON while other conventional energy plants were spun off into the Uniper (>> Uniper SE) offshoot.
Uniper last Thursday issued forward prices for its European hydroelectric plants.
RWE on Tuesday released hedge sales showing it too had sold below current market prices.
The Preussen Elektra unit report a 2 percent lower earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for 2016 of 553 million euros, the slides also showed.
Revenue was a third down on 2015 at 1.54 billion, because in the previous year, it had still partly operated the Grafenrheinfeld reactor which is not permanently shut.[POWER/DE]
($1 = 0.9401 euros)
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
