NEW YORK -- The lights were back on Saturday in many homes and businesses in New York and New Jersey that lost power during Superstorm Sandy and Wednesday's nor'easter.

In New York City and neighbouring suburban Westchester County, utility Con Edison said it has restored electricity to 98 per cent of homes and businesses. About 20,000 of the utility's customers remained powerless, down from a peak of more than 1 million.

Those figures don't include tens of thousands of homes too damaged to juice up, but all homes on hard-hit Staten Island that can accept electricity regained power.

On New York's Long Island, progress was slower. Nearly 146,000 homes and businesses still didn't have power Saturday, the Long Island Power Authority said.

In New Jersey, more than 100,000 customers were without power Saturday, most along the coast, utilities said. That was down from 2.7 million at the height of the storm. Most service was expected to be restored by Saturday night.