UK's SSE says plans to re-open Keadby gas power plant

May 20 (Reuters) - SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) plans to re-open its Keadby gas-fired power station in Lincolnshire by the end of October pending a final decision due later this year, as gas becomes more competitive against coal in the power mix, the utility said on Wednesday.

Britain's second-biggest utility said it aims to move staff from its 1,000-megawatt Ferrybridge coal plant, which it intends to shut by next April due to rising costs, over to the Keadby gas plant.

"SSE hopes to redeploy some Ferrybridge staff there and across other parts of the SSE group and will do everything it can to avoid compulsory redundancies," it said in an update of its full-year results statement.

Gas-fired power plants are regaining their edge over traditionally cheaper coal-fuelled ones as additional carbon taxes penalise use of more heavily polluting fuels.

Gas prices in Britain have also come under pressure from cheaper and plentiful pipeline supplies from Europe and more imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as demand in Asia for the fuel weakens.

($1 = 0.6446 pounds) (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, editing by)