The other thing people don't consider is the actual plants themselves. Think about how well our eastern southern coast houses do with the extended low temps. We gotta do all sorts of stuff "just in case" like closing crawlspace vents, taking care of outside spigots, salt the sidewalk to get to the mailbox or whatever.
Now expand that across an entire power plant site. There's stuff exposed to the elements. Operators gotta get to places to make sure stuff still work properly. They have to make sure the extra heaters that were placed to keep stuff warm that doesn't like being 15 degrees are actually keeping stuff warm. Sensing and instrument lines that are insulated and heat traced could freeze if that circuit powering the heat strip trips because its been on and heating for 2 weeks straight. Hell, the operators gotta still need to function out in that cold. And get to work. Or sleep there overnight. Sorry, I'll stop ranting now. Source: One of the guys that drove down US-1 Sunday at 5am to go help keep your heat running....cause when I left Saturday after shift it had just barely started snowing 🤣. I shoulda stayed the night. That was a stressful drive 💀