Ponyville is in the boonies. Have you ever seen any electrical lines there?

@Mildgyth  

 
Short circuits that don’t trip your breaker or blow a fuse don’t just happen “out of nowhere”, same way there are next to no accidental discharges, only negligent discharges. They can happen if a chimpanzee did your installation or if you hate your life enough to leave a $2 charger from Aliexpress plugged in overnight which was soldered by starved Chinese child slaves. But that is not out of nowhere, that is always from a very specific somewhere, and very much equivalent to leaving an open fire unattended indoors and hoping for the best.

@Roxor
 
There is some risk - you can always get a short circuit out of nowhere.

@Natry  
I’m not sure if “careless” is the right word. “Wasteful”, certainly, but “careless” seems to imply an element of risk, which doesn’t arise with electricity unless you happen to be working on the wiring.

@Roxor  
Except fire has to be maintained. If you leave a fire alone, it will either burn out or burn your your house down. People can be far more careless with electrical lighting. I had a housemate who liked to turn on every light in the house and leave them on even when she goes to sleep or leaves the house.

@Natry  
And fire doesn’t? Hell, it’s probably worse because it creates particles for the light to reflect off as well.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Good point. more magic in the environment, more powerful magic

then ponis with high technology with wireless energy with those antennas

You’re assuming that’s electricity the dam’s power plant is generating. Do you see any transmission lines?
 
My guess is, the power plant is generating raw magical power and transmitting it directly into the environment. Magic flows through Equestria like an invisible stream, and ponies can tap that potential, each according to their race: Earth ponies to shape the land and grow life, Pegasi to control the weather, and Unicorns to tap the power directly and use it to cast reality-warping spells.

Lightbulbs create a lot of light pollution, which makes it harder to see the stars. Equestrian religion/royalty revolves around the sky, so they opt out.

It’s a tree library, probably carved out (or grown that way?) long before electric installation was a thing.  
Also Ponyville looks pretty rural. It wasn’t well until the 50’s that electricity became commonplace in households around here, and we’re not talking about some Trans-Uralic hellhole here, but central Europe.

Because I prefer to work by candlelight

The Rarity’s sewing machines uses electricity, also, her boutiques too.  

It’s just one of the many inconsistencies of the show

The Golden Oaks Library actually had electric lighting in the very first episode. They just didn’t use them much.

I guess you could say they were missing that particular … element!

@Prometheus labs CEO  
You do know that the power of steam was known in ancient times, but was not used besides toys because it was simpler and more convieniend to use slaves, Right?
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

For me, Equestria follows a policy of environmental care and renewable energies. Electricity is used primarily for public buildings such as hospitals and schools.

@Background Pony #C928  
Do you know how hard it is to charge Bugs with electricity that are not dangerous?
 

@Background Pony #C928  
In one picture I saw an x-ray, so in other words they have x-ray technology but NOT the lightbulb??

science
 
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Mood lighting.

They do have light bulbs though.
 

unicorns dependent on magic