NORDIC POWER-Spot prices seen falling below 30 euros

* Stronger wind output weighs on spot
* Front-quarter curve tracks coal prices down

OSLO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Nordic electricity spot prices were
expected to fall below 30 euros over the weekend and Monday due
to higher wind output, while front-quarter prices eased on
softer coal, analysts said.
The Nordic average day-ahead price for Saturday was seen
falling to 26 euros ($32.14) a megawatt-hour (MWh) and to 24
euros on Sunday from 30.5 MWh on Friday, analysts at Thomson
Reuters Point Carbon said.
"The weekend will clear lower due to higher wind power
output and a lower demand for electricity," a Point Carbon
analyst said.
The spot was seen firming to 28.4 MWh on Monday as
consumption recovers.
"On Monday, we expect consumption back up again, but the
wind increase will shave off most of the peak we have seen the
last few days," the analyst added.
Combined wind power output in Denmark and Sweden was
forecast to increase over the weekend by an hourly average of
1,200 MW from 430 MW on Friday.
Wind power accounts for 7 percent of the total power
generation in the Nordic region.

FORWARD PRICES
The benchmark quarter-ahead contract for baseload
(24 hours) delivery traded at 39.00 euros per megawatt-hour
(MWh) at 0900 GMT, down 20 euro cents from Thursday.
The price curve trailed easing coal prices as Colombia's
railway was expected to resume moving coal on Friday after a
strike ended.
The 25-day strike has paralysed more than half of exports
from the world's fourth-largest coal exporter.
"Coal continues to edge down on news about a solution to the
Colombian railway strike," the analyst said.
API2 coal swaps for shipping coal in the fourth quarter
closed at $94 a tonne on Thursday from $94.80 the
previous day, after peaking to $97.95 a tonne on August 9.
At the far end of the curve, the Nordic contract for
baseload power delivery in 2013 remained steady at
38.70 euros.
Crude oil prices eased on news of a possible release of oil
reserves by the United States and lesser concern of potential
disruption of Middle East exports.
Brent crude was trading more than $1 lower at
$114.05 a barrel at 0830 GMT on Friday.

BELGIAN REACTOR
On Thursday, Belgian nuclear regulator FANC said it would be
difficult for GDF Suez's Belgian unit, Electrabel, to
prove its 1,006 megawatt Doel 3 reactor is safe after the
discovery of suspected cracks in the core tank.
The tank was built by now-defunct Dutch company
Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, which also supplied a
number of nuclear plants, including a core tank for Sweden's
Ringhals-2 reactor.
Its operator, Sweden's state-owned energy company Vattenfall
, has said it would investigate the reactor after
shutting it down for a planned maintenance on September 15.
($1 = 0.8089 euros)

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Nina Chestney)