Soaring Power Prices Turn Deep Freeze Into Financial Stress Test

As weekend temperatures plummeted below freezing across the US, 27-year-old Jahdaya Francis turned off the radiators in her Yonkers, New York apartment and huddled around a small space heater. A few states away, in Prince George, Virginia, 36-year-old Samantha Smith shut off the electricity to half of the home she shares with her young daughter.

“I’m sleeping in the living room with a heated blanket on my loveseat, wearing sweatpants, socks, a long T-shirt and a North Face jacket,” Smith said. “But it’s not very warm.”

Neither woman can afford to crank up the thermostat, even as a second winter storm is ...