In the Goblet of Fire, Hermione says:
All those substitutes for magic Muggles use – electricity, and computers and radar, and all those things – they all go haywire around Hogwarts, there’s too much magic in the air.'
Goblet of Fire - pages 475-476 - Bloomsbury - chapter 28, The Madness of Mr Crouch
But it is impossible for electricity not to work. If electricity didn't work then:
Well, the universe literally would not exist as we know it, because electricity is streams of electrons, and without electrons, compounds (and thus most matter) wouldn't exist. If electricity (electromagnetism) did not exist the universe would not exist, since EM forces are an integral component of the (commonly accepted) standard model.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_would_happen_if_there_was_no_electricity
Besides is it just me or our brains work on basis of sending electrical impulses through neurons?
So how can electricity - and I don't mean electronics, but basic electricity - not work?
Answer
As to a possible explanation it might be a localized limitation of EM field functions E.g. similar to the "damping fields" which have been used in Star Trek. This would include ST:DS9: Paradise in which a duonetic field artificially suppressed EM functions.
As a further example, of suppression of high-energy-density electrical items vs. lower density items such as bio-electricity. you might check out S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series. In it, not only electricity but gunpowder, steam engines, etc. do not work. The key difference being the level and density of the electrical/heat energy being artificially produced.
In particular given the "magical" overtones which later come to the fore in Stirling's universe, as the likely cause of the "Change" it would be similar to the Hogwart's damping.
Neither of these explanations would necessarily be in in-universe explanation for the Potterverse. But, such a phenomenon is certainly common enough in regular SF situations, not too mention more Fantasy based stories.
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