EDF launches sale of Polish assets worth up to $500 mln -report

* EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) to sell of Polish coal-fired power plants-paper

* Sale could raise up to $500 mln

* Engie (Other OTC: ENGIY - news) to sell its coal-fired power station too-sources (Adds detail on EPH, Engie)

WARSAW, Jan 13 (Reuters) - French utility EDF has launched a sale of its Polish coal-fired heating and power plants worth up to 2 billion zlotys ($498 million) and hired law firm Dentons and investment bank Rothschild to help, the Puls Biznesu daily reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The planned sale is part of EDF's strategy to focus on low-carbon nuclear and renewable energy and would help to raise funds to invest billions of euros in a nuclear project in Britain.

In Poland, EDF's plants hold a 15 percent share of the heating market. Its 1.7 gigawatt (GW) coal-fired power station in Rybnik, in the south of the country, generates about 7 percent of the electricity consumed in Poland.

EDF aims to sell its Polish assets together and a deal is possible by mid-2016, Puls Biznesu said.

However, the Rybnik plant could be a hard sell because power generation in Poland is mostly loss-making due to high CO2 emission costs and ageing infrastructure that requires constant investment.

Local electricity producers also complain that they receive insufficient state support and have called for new regulations that would entitle them to be paid not only for the electricity they produce but also for capacity kept in reserve.

Czech energy company EPH is the most likely potential buyer of EDF's Polish assets, Puls Biznesu said, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

"EPH is a strong player and in good relations with EDF, so it could possibly buy all EDF's Polish assets," an industry source said on Wednesday, adding that recent transactions in the Polish heating sector suggest that EDF should receive about 2 billion zlotys.

Sources told Reuters that Poland's Enea (Stockholm: ENEA.ST - news) had also been eyeing EDF's Rybnik power station.

EDF and EPH declined to comment. An Enea spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

A thermal unit of Poland's state-run gas firm PGNiG could also be interested in EDF's heating plants, Puls Biznesu added.

Polish energy companies could also be potential buyers of a 1.8 GW coal-fired power plant in Polaniec, in the south of the country, which is owned by another French utility, Engie (Brussels: ENGI.BR - news) , previously known as GDF Suez (Milan: 1GSZ.MI - news) .

"GDF (Engie) is also looking for a buyer, but they have not started a formal process. GDF has been talking mostly to domestic investors," another industry source told Reuters.

"Sooner or later both EDF and GDF will sell their Polish conventional thermal assets." ($1 = 4.0196 zlotys) (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Anna Koper in Warsaw; additional reporting by Geert de Clercq in Paris and Michael Kahn in Prague; Editing by Jason Neely and David Goodman)