As the article explains, lack of wind and nuclear outages made energy scarce and power prices spike.
German coal and gas-fired power plant output in January rose to its highest in almost five years as cold weather boosted demand while below average wind and record-low winter nuclear availability reduced supply, according to power generation data compiled by think-tank Fraunhofer ISE.
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Cold weather across Europe also lifted demand not just in Germany but also neighboring countries, especially France and the Alpine region.
Load in Germany itself was around 7% higher on year at 45.2 TWh, according to the Fraunhofer ‘energy charts’ data mainly based on TSO reports.
Output from gas plants also rose to its highest level since February 2012 at 5.6 TWh, up 14% on year, but with only a limited number of gas-fired plants reporting.
Via S&P Global