Now that electricity has finally been restored to the last of at least 130,000 homes that lost power due to a violent wind storm Sept. 14, the state Public Utility Commission will review how Duquesne Light, Allegheny Power, Penn Power and Penelec performed during the massive outage.

All utilities that suffer unexpected outages -- electric, water, telephone or natural gas -- must file a report with the PUC within five days of its last restoration, according to commission rules. The report, which primarily is statistical, includes preparations made in advance of the storm given the forecast, response, procedures used and restoration times, PUC spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher said.

"We look at those reports to see how the utility responded, whether they were properly prepared and whether there were any violations of the Public Utility Code in their response," Ms. Kocher said. "They have a responsibility to provide safe and reliable service."

Depending upon what they find, commissioners can launch a further investigation, invoke fines or institute changes in the Public Utility Code, she said.

Four days after winds of 60 to 70 mph or more swept through the region toppling lines, poles and trees and knocking out transformers, local utilities counted 14,000 customers without power. Two days later, more than 2,100 customers still didn't have power. The longest-lasting impact was north and west of Pittsburgh, scattered among Butler, Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer counties, as well as some of western Allegheny County.

According to Ms. Kocher, Penn Power was the last of the utilities to bring all of its customers back on line, doing so at noon Monday. She said Duquesne Light, which at its peak had 105,000 customers without power, was completely back on line at 5:30 a.m. Monday but company spokesman Joseph Vallarian said he believed all customers were back in service by 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Allegheny Power said all of its customers were back on line by 4:30 p.m. Friday, but the PUC said it didn't receive a final report of full restoration from the company until 7:40 a.m. Saturday. Penelec informed the PUC that it had all of their customers restored by 9 a.m. Sunday.

During the outages, many residents were frustrated with a lack of answers from their utilities about when service would be restored. A number complained that they couldn't even reach anyone answering phone lines.

And because some municipal authorities' water pumps were affected, and many rural residents have well-water service dependent on electricity, plenty of households had to deal with combined loss of water, lights and appliances.

The electric companies said they were doing their best to address unexpectedly severe problems. Duquesne Light, which had initially sent some employees to the Texas coast to help with storm damage there, brought in even more workers from the Philadelphia and Delaware areas to help here. Utility officials stressed that their crews in the field were logging 16-hour shifts, while employees at command centers had been working at least 12-hour stretches.

Through last week, the PUC received a total of 50 complaints about the outage with 23 concerning Duquesne Light.

Allegheny County Councilman Matt Drozd urged all those affected by the power outage to attend a County Council Public Safety meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. today.

"We need to keep the questions flowing as to what we can do to avert future long-sustained power outages and the power companies need to be reminded," he said in a press release. "As elected officials, we cannot forget those who suffered as a result of the recent longtime power outages."