car loses all power

[martyf250]

noticed this during extremely cold days. worst was this morning. Start up the car and all of sudden the instruments on the dash lose all power and only the battery light and sometimes 4WD light is on. everything else loses all power. While i was driving the car would "limp" it still ran but lost all lights/ dash/ instruments/ and engine would not rev.

Any insight into what it may be?