RPT-Tepco says may extend power restrictions if reactors remain idle

(Repeats story to cover separate alert)

TOKYO, June 29 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power may ask customers to prolong restrictions on power usage beyond summer unless it can restart idle reactors at its Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant, the utility's new president said on Wednesday.

Toshio Nishizawa on Tuesday took over the helm of the troubled utility, which is still struggling to halt a radiation leak at its crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima.

Tokyo Electric has asked households and business in Tokyo and its surrounding regions to reduce power consumption by 15 percent in order to avoid exceeding generating capacity after Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima facility.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Edmund Klamann)