If it's the Spire Card you're referring to, that's not what's going on. The Spire is Bryegot's Clockwork Tower which is being hit with Rhalgr's thunderbolts. Only Bryegot (being the craftsman he is) has designed his tower to use Rhalgr's thunderbolts as a power source. The reason all this is happening? Rhalgr is jealous of his adoptive son.

It is interesting how well that story fits into what the Crystal Tower's original purpose is though (giant solar collector/power generator). As far as I can tell though, it never received energy from Dalamud itself until Xande tried to summon the Cloud of Darkness and triggered the 4rd Umbral Calamity.