Power markets across the US East are coming under intensifying pressure as a deep Arctic blast drives electricity demand sharply higher and pushes prices to record levels. Power prices in Baltimore and Washington, DC surged above $4,000 per megawatt-hour during a grid emergency, while next-day prices in New York City jumped 31%, extending a third consecutive day of record highs. A reinforcing wave of polar air could send temperatures as much as 30F below normal starting Friday, and forecasters are monitoring the risk of a late-week bomb cyclone that could deliver another round of snow and ice along the Eastern Seaboard, potentially prolonging stress on already stretched power systems.

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Grid operators are responding with increasingly extraordinary measures as the cold persists and equipment strain builds. The system serving more than 67 million people from Chicago to Virginia is preparing to shift data centers and other large electricity users onto backup power to preserve supply for households and hospitals, while New York's grid operator said roughly 3 gigawatts of generating capacity is unavailable due to outages at multiple fossil-fuel plants and weak solar output. With subfreezing temperatures expected to linger across parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley, officials have warned that prolonged cold can compound wear on gas pipelines, power plants, and transmission systems, limiting the ability to bring sidelined capacity back online.

The market response has begun to show up in power-producer equities. NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) rose more than 4%, while Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST), Talen Energy Corp. (NASDAQ:TLN), and Constellation Energy Corp. (NASDAQ:CEG) also moved higher as investors reacted to tightening supply-and-demand conditions. After years of relatively flat electricity consumption, the combination of expanding data centers, rising electrification of heating, and extreme winter weather is reinforcing concerns about regional grid resilience, a dynamic that could remain in focus as forecasters warn the cold may extend well into next week.