French power, gas use rise to new record on chill

* RTE predicts demand peak on Thursday of 97,000 MW

* RTE says Brittany, southeast most vulnerable regions

* Two unplanned outages further strain electricity system

PARIS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Bitterly cold weather is expected to push gas and electricity consumption to new record highs on Thursday, France's gas and electricity grids said.

French electricity consumption is expected to reach 97,000 megawatts (MW) at 1800 GMT, when people return from work and turn on their heating and cooking equipment.

The previous electricity consumption record was set in Dec. 2010, also because of cold weather, when it reached 96,710 MW.

The surge in electricity demand in France is due to the fact many households use electric heating systems.

French power grid RTE said there was no risk of power cuts thanks to healthy production levels in France and imports from neighbouring countries.

It said the rise in consumption had put a strain on the western regions of Brittany, the Var and Alpes-Maritimes area in southeastern France, the most vulnerable regions to power cuts because of longstanding supply and transmission problems.

RTE said on Thursday it had put those regions on alert for power cuts and asked the population to reduce consumption.

Two unplanned outages on Thursday further tightened supply margins. A 260-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power plant in Le Cheylas in southeastern France unexpectedly stopped as did a coal-fired 250-MW power plant in Bouchain in northern France.

Grid operator data did not specify reasons for the outages or restart dates.

French spot baseload power traded at 85 euros per megawatt-hour on Thursday, nearly 80 percent higher than Friday over-the-counter trading levels seen a week ago.

With demand expected to remain strong, Monday baseload traded even higher at 105 euros per MWh and the peak contract changed hands for 128 euros per MWh.

France's gas transport network GRTGaz said it expected gas consumption on Thursday to reach 3,158 gigawatt hours, beating the previous record of 3,037 GWh reached in January 2010.

"GRTgaz is in particular meeting the needs of the French electricity system," the gas grid said in a statement.

"The 11 gas-fired power plants should reach a record consumption of 185 GWh," GRTgaz added. (Reporting By Muriel Boselli and Karolin Schaps; editing by James Jukwey)