Subscribe to David T Phung
Share Dialog
The electricity went out about 35 minutes ago, and I’m staying there for Memorial Day.
Chapters:
I: The Unexpected Blackout
II: Density Lesson from Smil
III: Going Analog for the Moment
IV: Revealing Thoughts
V: References
I was not able to upload a video on Paragraph. See the video on the Substack post. https://open.substack.com/pub/davidtphung/p/when-electricity-stops-flowing-on?r=cxk1s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Figure 1 - Video of the American flag outside where I’m staying
It’s a small complex—less than 500 residents—but now you’d think we were hosting an impromptu gathering. Families stepped outside. Dog owners lingered longer on their walks. Conversations began to ripple between balconies and sidewalks.
One family was already mid-barbecue when the power cut out, and they just kept going. Although their unit lost electricity, they stayed outside, music playing softly from a battery-powered speaker, passing food around as if nothing had changed.
Another neighbor, passing me during a walk, said hopefully, “I just hope the power comes back before bedtime.”
No panic. Just curiosity, improvised plans, and a reminder: we overlook infrastructure until it disappears.
Luckily, I still had mobile service to post this. It made me think:
If a local outage creates this uncertainty, how would we even know if something bigger happened, like an EMP?
Update: Our neighbor contacted SoCal Edison, and the ETA to have electricity again is 01:00 AM PST on 05/27/2025. Electricity stopped flowing at about 06:24 PM PST on 05/26/2025.
Update: Electricity started flowing again around 08:50 PM PST on 05/26/2025 (Confirmed by my parents) I drove around town for a bit to enjoy the night lights.
With the power out, I grabbed a book that doesn’t need charging: Power Density by Vaclav Smil.
Reading it in the quiet, something clicked:
Figure 2 - Power Density by Vaclav Smil
First: Civilization runs on concentrated energy per square meter. That’s power density. Without it, our pace of life collapses.
Second: When energy gets too dispersed, fragility creeps in. It takes more land, more time, and more labor to do what used to happen instantly.
Smil doesn’t write like he’s trying to be poetic. But he is.
He reveals the physics behind the fabric of our daily life—and what frays when it breaks.
With no power, Wi-Fi, or distractions, I wondered: What else is there to do that doesn’t require a device?
I read. I walked. I observed.
Figure 3 - Community complex walk
The absence of electricity wasn’t just a constraint but a filter. The day slowed down. I saw families talking. A kid kicked a soccer ball with his dad in the courtyard. A woman played an acoustic guitar quietly on her steps.
There was something profoundly human about rediscovering life without a constant current. The power cut also removed a layer of noise.
Sometimes disconnection is where presence hides.
“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” Warren Buffett
When the lights go out, we don’t just see what fails—we notice what endures.
The electric tide went out tonight. What stayed afloat was conversation, curiosity, and candle-lit clarity. Luckily, the summer heat wave hasn’t hit Palm Springs, so stay hydrated!
Figure 4 - A beautiful day in Palm Springs, CA, USA
A reminder that every day, invisible things become visible when you’re not able to do something anymore. This is why my mission is to build abundant and reliable electricity at scale. If you’re on this mission, please reach out, I’d love to connect and chat.
Thank you for reading, and please share with the people you love.
Vaclav Smil, Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses (MIT Press, 2015).
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Letter (2001).
Congressional Research Service. Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. National Risk Management Center – EMP Protection Guidelines.
Powered by: NLT143 | ️ | Farcaster | X |YouTube Podcast
<100 subscribers
No comments yet