Market News

By Brian K. Sullivan

(Bloomberg) -- A winter storm has grounded flights across the eastern and central US, shut federal offices in Washington and knocked out power across six states. 

Washington, where Congress will meet to certify the presidential election later Monday, had received as much as 5 inches (13 centimeters) of snow through the morning, according to the National Weather Service. As much as 12 inches may fall in some areas before the system finally exits around midnight, said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. 

“Going forward we’re still expecting an additional 6 to 8 inches, bringing our totals up close to a foot in some spots,” he said.

The storm is the first major snow event of the season across most of the central and eastern US, arriving in time to tangle Washington’s morning commute after dropping as much as 18 inches across eastern Kansas. Most federal offices have been shut, according to the US Office of Personnel Management.

More than 1,900 flights around the US were canceled Monday, including at Washington and Baltimore airports, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. More than 1,900 additional trips were delayed. 

Federally funded rail passenger carrier Amtrak has also scrubbed trains across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including the Acela high-speed service to and from Washington, according to its website. Commuter rail services in Maryland and Virginia won’t be running on most lines Monday.

As of 10 a.m. New York time, almost 325,000 customers were without power in eight states from Missouri to Virginia, the hardest hit, according to PowerOutage.us.

Power prices more than doubled on three US grids stretching from the Northeast to the Mid-Atlantic. The average for on-peak power on the New England grid jumped to $165 per megawatt-hour for Monday from Jan. 3 to the highest level in almost a year. New York City rose to a two-week high of about $146. 

Electricity at the benchmark hub on the grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC, which serves more than 65 million people from Washington DC to Chicago, averaged $73 for Monday, the most in four months. 

After the snow passes through the mid-Atlantic, enduring frigid temperatures will keep driving demand higher. PJM released a cold-weather alert for Jan. 8 to Jan. 10 asking power plant and transmission line owners to consider deferring any maintenance, and for generators to let the grid operator know of any fuel limitations. Demand is poised to climb to about 133 gigawatts, the most since September, according Arcus Power’s NRGstream grid data service. 

While the snow in Washington may ease by midday on Monday, a second round is expected later. New York City will be spared the worst of it, with less than an inch expected, and Boston won’t get any snow at all, Pereira said. 

Meanwhile, wind chills across Texas have dropped temperatures to as low as 5F (minus 15 C) in some places, and there is a threat of snow and rain across Dallas starting Wednesday and lasting until Friday. As of mid-morning, more than 8,000 customers across Texas were without power, PowerOutage.us said. 

--With assistance from Naureen S. Malik.

(Updates cancellations in fifth paragraph)