In the day-ahead market on JEPX (Japan Electric Power Exchange), the 24-hour spot power prices on a weekly average basis for Oct 6-10 delivery extended gains from the previous week in East Japan (50 Hz) as well as in West Japan (60 Hz). In West Japan, where a supply/demand balance in power is tight due to the outage of thermal power plants in Kansai and Shikoku as well as persistent summer-like weather, such as recording around 30 degrees Celsius, prices showed a larger gain, exceeding East Japan depending on the day. Amid this, while spot prices themselves did not spike, the hour-ahead prices soared to Yen 100.00 in the dusk on Oct 8, along with the imbalance charge surging to Yen 121.57 from 16:00 to 16:30 on the same day in Hokuriku, Kansai, Chugoku, and Kyushu.

The 24-hour spot average between Tokyo and Kansai, a major market area in East and West Japan, was Yen 1.38 on Oct 6, Yen 0.49 on Oct 7, Yen 1.64 on Oct 9, and Yen 1.57 on Oct 10 in favor of the East, respectively; it was Yen 0.27 in favor of the West on Oct 8.

The fuel market trends in the second week of October were detailed as follows.

DES Northeast Asia spot LNG prices on Oct 9 gained roughly by 45cts from the end of last week (Oct 3) to low-$11's per mmBtu for prompt November 2025 delivery. The strong natural gas markets in Europe raised the DES Northeast Asia market, though weak buying interests from end-users in Northeast Asia continued. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced on Oct 8 that Japan's LNG inventories for power generation stood at 1.87 mil mt as of Oct 5, up 40,000 mt from a week before. The figure was above the end of October last year (1.84 mil mt) but below the average for the past five years (2.03 mil mt).

FOB Newcastle thermal coal prices in Australia were in the mid-$104's per ton for October 2025 loading as of Oct 9, down around 50cts from the previous week.

In the crude oil market, WTI crude for November 2025 stood in the mid $61's per barrel at 8AM on Oct 9, while Brent crude for December 2025 was trading in the low-$65's. Prices gained by roughly 70cts from the end of the previous week for WTI and Brent. This was because a production increase of 137,000 barrels per day in November by OPEC Plus had not reached the market expectation that the production increase in November would be at least more than the level in October. A decrease in US gasoline and distillate weekly inventory data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) also played a part in raising prices.

The actual highest price during the week was at 20.00 in Hokuriku, Kansai, Chugoku, & Kyushu on Oct 8 and in Hokkaido on Oct 9; the actual lowest price during the week was at Yen 0.01 in Shikoku on Oct 6,7 and 10.

By area, the weekly average of the 24-hour spot prices was at Yen 9.92 in Hokkaido, down Yen 1.25 from the previous week; Yen 10.87 in Tohoku, down Yen 0.18; Yen 12.76 in Tokyo, up Yen 0.37; Yen 12.05 in Chubu, up Yen 0.91; Yen 11.80 in Hokuriku and Kansai, up Yen 1.14; Yen 11.53 in Chugoku, up Yen 1.35; Yen 9.09 in Shikoku, down Yen 1.65; and Yen 11.16 in Kyushu, up Yen 1.09.

In the JEPX auction, the volume of offers was 1,080.89 mil kWh on a weekly average basis, down 6.9% from the previous week. Meanwhile, bids on a weekly average basis were up 5.7% to 1,153.57 mil kWh. The weekly average of trade volumes recorded 768.00 mil kWh, down 0.9%.

Power demand in nine areas of Japan during Oct 6-10 was a combined 11,149.08 mil kWh, up 0.2% from 11,130.27 mil kWh during Sep 29-Oct 2. The figure was up/down 2.8% from the corresponding period a year earlier, which was 10,850.35 mil kWh during Oct 7-11, 2024, after day-of-week adjustment.

Deals reported on TOCOM (Tokyo Commodity Exchange) during Oct 6-13 were as below.

Deals reported on EEX (European Energy Exchange) during Oct 6-13 were as below.

Prices for the third week in October would not change much from the second week, with high expected temperatures being 30 degrees Celsius in West Japan and 25 in Kanto. While high temperatures would be below 20-25 degrees in Tohoku and below 20 degrees in Hokkaido, low temperatures would be below 10 degrees in many parts of Hokkaido and at around 5 degrees in Asahikawa City, deriving demand for heating during nighttime. For weather, a sunny spell was expected to some extent but accompanied by occasional clouds, which would not necessarily lead to ample outputs from photovoltaic power. Amid this, a source at a power producer and supplier said, "Unless there are troubles at power plants, prices will not move much from this week because the weather pattern will be the same as this week. Base load prices will be at around Yen 13.00 for Tokyo and Yen 1.00 lower than Tokyo for Kansai."