There's a couple of things with this one.

1. There was a story around November or December or so, talking about China using weather warfare, which stated that they had sent something to disrupt the arctic circle which would see freezing temperatures enter the USA and other countries in the Northern hemisphere.

2. The World Economic Forum said there would be a pandemic of power cuts coming up through cyber attacks, and the Solar Winds hack saw people gain access to the power grid.

Not sure which (or if another reason), but the power outages definitely seem by design.