Phospholipids self-assembled into reverse micelles in benzene are introduced as a new model system to study elementary processes relevant for energy transport in hydrated biological membranes. Femtosecond vibrational spectroscopy gives insight into the dynamics of the antisymmetric phosphate stretching vibration v(AS)(PO(2))(-), a sensitive probe of local phosphate-water interactions and energy transport. The decay of the v(AS)(PO(2))(-) mode with a 300-fs lifetime transfers excess energy to a subgroup of phospholipid low-frequency modes, followed by redistribution among phospholipid vibrations within a few picoseconds. The latter relaxation is accelerated by adding a confined water pool, an efficient heat sink in which the excess energy induces weakening or breaking of water-water and water-phospholipid hydrogen bonds. In parallel to vibrational relaxation, resonant energy transfer between v(AS)(PO(2))(-) oscillators delocalizes the initial excitation.