Photographer: Will Newton/Getty Images
(Bloomberg) — A vast swath of the US stretching from the Southern Rockies to New England is on alert for winter-storm conditions that could last days, disrupting travel and threatening blackouts.
A mix of freezing rain and snow is expected to arrive in Texas by Friday evening, raising the risk of widespread power outages from ice buildup just as electricity demand is rising to keep homes warm. The storm will also barrel toward the US Northeast. The governors of Texas and New York declared emergencies.
Most Read from Bloomberg
At least 170 million people live in the areas likely to be impacted, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist for the Weather Prediction Center. “It’s going to create a lot of inconvenience and hazard,” he said.
Prices for electricity and natural gas — the No. 1 power-plant fuel, as well being widely used for home heating — have surged this week ahead of the storm and remain elevated.
Heavy snow will likely fall across New York City early Sunday, with more than 14 inches (36 centimeters) possible across the metro area before the storm subsides late Monday. Travel will be hazardous due to slick roads, especially on bridges and overpasses, and with visibility dropping to less than a quarter of a mile due to falling or blowing snow.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued disaster declarations for most counties in the state, which faces its biggest test since the deadly winter storm and widespread blackouts that followed almost five years ago.
The biggest challenge for Texas may come Monday morning, when the power supply-demand balance will be at its tightest. Demand on the state’s main grid is projected to top 84 gigawatts at 7 a.m.-8 a.m. local time that day, which would not only set a winter record but also be close to the all-time high record seen in the summer of 2023, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. One gigawatt is the typical capacity of a nuclear reactor.
In recent years, extreme weather conditions in Texas have seen Bitcoin miners, factories and even homes throttle back on demand in response to price spikes, shoring up supplies and avoiding grid emergencies, when supplies are preemptively cut to avoid wider and much more serious blackouts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued disaster declarations for more than half the counties in the state ahead of a powerful winter storm. Bloomberg’s Lauren Rosenthal explains.Source: Bloomberg
Power prices in the Ercot region rose as high as $1,000 a megawatt-hour for the off-peak hours this weekend into Monday, based on trading on Intercontinental Exchange on Thursday, according to traders.
PJM Interconnection, the 13-state power system stretching from Illinois to the East Coast, is set to operate on a more cautious and risk-averse footing from Saturday through Tuesday. It asked generators to pause maintenance before the storm hits.
The PJM region is home to the highest concentration of data centers in the US, in northern Virginia, and is the focus of concerns over how electricity generation can keep pace with demand driven by the AI boom. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday asked power companies to make backup power available from facilities including data centers.
The benchmark Mid-Atlantic power price on PJM rose to $450 per megawatt-hour. PJM, which serves nearly a fifth of Americans, has taken steps indicating the possibility that prices could top $1,000, according to a notice.
Natural gas prices have been on a tear this week ahead of the storm, with front-month futures rocketing by more than 70% to over $5 per million British thermal units.
In the physical market, where gas is bought and sold for immediate delivery, price action has been even more extreme. In early trading Friday, gas climbed to $75 on Williams Co.’s Transco pipelines serving the Carolinas, Baltimore and New Jersey. Gas on Enbridge Inc.’s system connecting eastern Pennsylvania to Jersey rose as high as $100, according to traders.
Spot gas at the Waha hub in West Texas soared to $12 per million British thermal units for the weekend, from less than $1 earlier this week, Thursday trading data showed.
–With assistance from Denise Lu, Cedric Sam, Alex Newman, Ruth Liao and Julian Hast.
(Updates with New York emergency declaration in the second paragraph, power prices starting in ninth paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
