Uniper sells hydropower for 2026, 2027 as part of hedging strategy

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German utility Uniper has sold sizeable quantities of its future hydropower and nuclear output as part of its hedging strategy, the company said in a presentation for analysts on Thursday.

Uniper has sold 40% of its German hydropower output for 2026 at an average price of 92 euros ($107.29) per megawatt hour and 60% of the output in 2027 at an average of 86 euros/MWh, it said, discussing nine-month 2025 earnings and strategy.

By comparison, the wholesale benchmark price for round-the-clock German power from all generation sources in 2026 closed at 90.4 euros on Wednesday, and at 86.9 euros for 2027, LSEG data showed.

The discrepancies come from different fuel elements at the overall wholesale level, that also reflect gas and coal power, and the impact of support schemes and volatile weather patterns for hydropower generally.

Producers use hedging to protect against price volatility and lock in forward production prices considered favourable at a certain point in time.

The wholesale market uses the rates to track price trends and assess a utility's physical asset position.

Uniper has sold 95% of its 2025 German output at 133 euros so far, after 2024 sales achieved an average price of 58 euros, the presentation also showed. The difference was mainly due to weather volatility.

The company also operates coal, gas-fired and nuclear plants as well as wind and solar power generation units elsewhere in Europe that were not reflected in the slides.

Regarding Nordic region prices, Uniper said it sold 60% of nuclear and hydropower for 2026 and 35% of output for 2027 at average prices of 37 euros/MWh and 38 euros/MWh respectively, having achieved 38 euros for 95% of 2025 output so far, and 43 euros in 2024.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)