PSE&G estimates 7 to 10 days for full restoration

New Jersey’s largest utility says it could be a week to 10 days before it restores all power to nearly all its customers.

Public Service Electric & Gas said early Thursday that the number of its customers without power has actually risen as more people report outages.

But statewide, the number of New Jersey residents in the dark after superstorm Sandy appears to have gone down slightly. The state’s utilities report 1.8 million homes and businesses still without power. That’s down from a peak of 2.7 million.

PSE&G says there still may still be isolated pockets of customers who will be without power for more than 10 days.

Jersey Central Power & Light says it has restored service to 20 percent of its affected customers. JCP&L estimates most of the remaining 910,646 households will be restored within a week. It may take two weeks for some in the hardest hit areas.

Atlantic City Electric, which has 77,267 outages, expects to restore service to customers on the mainland by Sunday.

There’s no estimate for repairs on the barrier islands.