Duquesne Light officials on Wednesday vowed to make improvements after customers complained of poor communication and long power outages after a severe storm in April.

The April 29 storm left three dead and caused massive, widespread damage, blowing roofs off of buildings, downing massive trees and leaving debris in roadways.

It took Duquesne Light nine days to restore power for all of the more than 300,000 customers who experienced outages.

“We do acknowledge that things did not go well,” said Jennifer Neiswonger, the utility company’s director of company experience.

Duquesne Light officials told Allegheny County Council members during a Wednesday meeting the company has been working since that spring storm to improve its emergency response and customer service.

The company in July pledged over $2.7 billion over the next five years to upgrade the safety and reliability of its grid infrastructure and electrical service.

State Rep. Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, lambasted Duquesne Light during Wednesday’s meeting at the Allegheny County Courthouse.

“What I have to get clarity on is: when you’re going to start having respect for your customers,” she said. “Because the behavior I have seen does not demonstrate respect to your customers.”

She accused Duquesne Light of failing to respond to community concerns. She said the company gave her rules to govern how she ought to interact with them.

“We care deeply about our customers and our community,” said Brian Guzek, vice president of operations at Duquesne Light.

The utility company held 40 after-storm sessions with 1,000 of its employees and hosted focus groups with impacted customers to gather feedback.

“Our customers were honest with us,” Guzek said. “There were some frustrations.”

But Duquesne Light officials said they were proud that there were no safety issues while restoring power.

About 95% of customers who had experienced outages had power restored within five days, said Ben Cain, who served as the utility’s incident commander in the April storm. About 99% had their lights back on within a week.

During those efforts, crews replaced more than 500 poles, 300 transformers and about 100 miles of wire, Cain said.

In an average storm, he said, they would replace about 44 poles, 53 transformers and 15 miles of wire.

Guzek said the company is looking to improve communication with customers, develop more accurate and localized restoration estimates, expand training and improve coordination with municipal officials and first responders.

Launching educational campaigns to help customers prepare for and report power outages, implementing two-way text messaging with customers, improving call volume capacity and piloting an online chatbot for customer support are among the improvements Duquesne Light has underway, Neiswonger said.

“We know how important it is for our customers to get timely, accurate and specific outage communications,” she said.

The company also is partnering with a regional retailer to offer ice and bottled water to customers who are without power for long periods of time, she said.

The utility also developed plans for scaling up operations when additional crews are needed, Guzek said.

The most contractors the company had ever brought in prior to the April storm was around 200 workers, Guzek said. For this incident, they brought in 600 workers.

Now, he said, the utility has plans in place for up to 2,000 additional workers.

Allegheny County Councilman Dewitt Walton, who chaired the meeting, urged the utility to continue working with elected officials and first responders to improve.

“I believe this is a start and not an end,” he said.

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