UK GAS-Prices rise on lower wind power forecasts

LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Friday morning as forecasts for lower output from the country's wind farms led to an increase in demand from gas-fired power stations.

* Day-ahead gas price up 1.00 pence at 53.00 p/therm by 0725 GMT.

* Within-day contract up 0.80 p at 53.00 p/therm.

* Traders said even though warm weather was likely to curb gas demand for heating next week forecasts show this will be offset by strong demand from power generators.

* Peak wind power generation is forecast at 5.5 gigawatts (GW) on Friday, falling to 2.6 GW on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) , National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data showed.

* Analysts at Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) said its gas for power demand forecast had increased for Monday.

* "Day-ahead gas for power consumption is forecast 12 mcm/day (million cubic meters) up compared to the previous forecasts," the analysts said in a daily research note.

* Gas system almost balanced on Friday with demand forecast at 147.9 (mcm) and flows at 149.6 mcm/day, National Grid data showed.

* Further out on the curve, prices also rose.

* July contract up 0.75 p at 53.30 p/therm.

* Winter 2018 contract up 0.70 p at 62.25 p/therm

* Day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub up 0.18 euro at 21.88 euros per megawatt-hour.

* Benchmark Dec-18 EU carbon contract down 0.03 euro at 14.78 euros per tonne. (Reporting by Susanna Twidale Editing by Edmund Blair)