Iberia power steady but well below rest of Europe

* Spain Tuesday base one-third French equivalent

* Weather colder than normal, but far from records

* Capacity 2.5 times peak demand

MADRID, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Iberian benchmark power prices were little changed on Monday despite a cold wave due to strong winds and remained below levels reached last month, and much lower than peers in France and Germany due to relatively depressed demand.

The Iberian Electricity Market's (Mibel) spot unit, OMIE, fixed the widely watched "pool" price for Tuesday at 50.93 euros ($66.83) per megawatt-hour, down 0.18 euro on the day.

That compared with a maximum for the year so far in Spain and Portugal of 58.65 euros/MWh, and with day-ahead prices of 80.00 euros in Germany and a record 155.00 euros in France.

"It isn't that cold here, we've had a few big users like smelters halting, so demand is slow, and we've so much overcapacity that any surge in demand can be easily absorbed," a trader said.

Although overnight temperatures in the Peninsula's biggest city, Madrid, of -4 degrees Celsius were below an average of 3.7 degrees, they were still comfortably above a record low of -9.7 degrees.

National grid operator REE estimated demand for electricity on Monday in Spain - which accounts for 85 percent of the Mibel - would be 812 gigawatt-hours, some 10 percent below a 2007 record of 898 GWh.

Forecast peak demand of 40,400 megawatts would still be dwarfed by Spain's generation capacity of some 100,000 MW.

Wind power monitored by REE was providing a brisk 26.8 percent of Spain's electricity at 11,081 MW, and expected to rise as high as 11,776 MW on Tuesday. ($1 = 0.7621 euros) (Reporting by Martin Roberts)