EUROPE POWER-Upgraded German wind power forecast weighs on Monday prices

PARIS, May 20 (Reuters) - German power prices for delivery next Monday fell in Friday trading on the European wholesale market on expectations of increased German and French wind supply.

Germany's Monday baseload power price fell to 196.50 euros ($208.19) per megawatt hour (MWh) as of 1032 GMT, down 5.5% from Friday.

The equivalent French price shed 4.7% to 198 euros/MWh.

Supply from German wind turbines is forecast to rise 4.6 gigawatts (GW) from Friday levels to 12.7 GW on Monday, while that in France is seen gaining 1 GW to 4.3 GW over the same period, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

A Refinitiv analysis showed that daily average wind supply levels in Germany will reach a weekly high next Thursday at nearly 21 GW.

French nuclear power availability remained at 52.7% of total installed capacity.

Production restrictions at the 2.6 GW Saint Alban nuclear plant are expected on May 22 due to low flow rate forecasts on the Rhone river, nuclear operator EDF said in a note Thursday.

The operator warned on Thursday that nuclear outages would cost it 4.5 billion euros more than it estimated earlier this month.

Demand in Germany on Monday was pegged at 56.1 GW, down 1.2 GW from Friday, and put at 45.5 GW in France on Monday, 520 MW below Friday levels.

The German front-year contract added 0.7% to 229 euros/MWh, while the equivalent French contract ticked up 0.2% to 307 euros/MWh.

European CO2 allowances for December 2022 expiry ticked down 0.1% to 83.10 euros a tonne.

The Russian rouble rallied on Friday to its strongest levels against the euro and dollar since June 2015 and March 2018, respectively, which analysts attributed to EU countries preparing to pay Russia for gas and to capital controls imposed by Moscow.

Separately, the startup of Britain's first new nuclear plant in decades is expected to be delayed by around a year to 2027 and project costs have been raised by 3 billion pounds, EDF said. ($1 = 0.9438 euros) (Reporting by Forrest Crellin; editing by Kim Coghill)