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Can electricity exist without being part of a circuit, or is there always a circuit on some level for electricity to flow?

Considering how all outlets and nodes of electricity on the grid are interconnected, there's a common element: the presence of a complete circuit. Break the circuit, remove a component like hot or neutral, and electricity doesn't flow.

Is this always the case, or not necessarily true? Can electricity exist without being part of a circuit? I realize there are different kinds or forms of electricity and it could be that not all of them behave like electric current through conduit in a circuit. For example are there considered to be circuits with the electricity of a biological system and the other materials within and around it?

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    $\begingroup$ Note that 'electricity flows' along the length of an, e.g., end-fed antenna but there isn't a complete circuit in the conventional sense. $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Apr 5, 2018 at 2:49
  • $\begingroup$ Is the electicity that is received (as well as transmitted via wireless) necessarily engaged in another electric circuit beyond the wireless transmission? $\endgroup$
    – cr0
    Commented Apr 5, 2018 at 3:43
  • $\begingroup$ cr0, I'm not sure what you mean by "necessarily engaged in another electric circuit". $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Apr 5, 2018 at 12:43
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    $\begingroup$ cr0, in my first comment, I mention an antenna not so much for the wireless aspect but for the reason that, despite the fact that the end-fed antenna is not connected electrically to anything at the far end, there is nonetheless an AC current in the antenna and electrical power delivered to it. In this sense, 'electricity flows' without there being a complete circuit in the conventional sense of a closed path for current to circulate. $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Apr 5, 2018 at 14:15
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    $\begingroup$ cr0, also, for a receiver in the near field, the transmitter 'sees' the receiver (engages it if you will) but, in the far field, the propagating radio waves 'have a life of their own' and the transmitter does 'see' the far field receivers. $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Apr 5, 2018 at 14:56

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If you were thinking about energy, then photon was and it carried energy. Think about wireless charging for example.

Also plasma may be something you asked about?

However, if it was a steady field $E$ without charge, then I wasn't sure but I think it wasn't possible because sometime a time dependent variation would pop up in the calculation.

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Electricity can exist without being a part of a circuit. Electricity means electrical energy. What exists in a electric circuit is electric current that's flow of charges basically electrons. We have batteries that indeed store electricity. Electric current is also induced in a plane wire by a change of magnetic flux. Whenever electric current is there it will have energy associated with it that's nothing but electricity or electrical energy.

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