On February 21, 2019, TEPCO Power Grid and Tokyo Electric Power Services (TEPSCO) announced that they has signed an underground substation consulting agreement with Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO), a leading electric distribution company based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and TEPCO Power Grid along with TEPSCO will serve as consultants for DESCO. While TEPCO Power Grid has over 40 years of experience with the construction and operation of underground substations, this is its first overseas consulting agreement, with supervision of the bidding process and the construction. The project will be conducted from March 2019 to June 2025.

Given the high population density and increasing power consumption in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, its government plans to construct the first underground substation to stabilize the power supply and meet the increasing demand, which will contribute to economic development. In the project, TEPCO Power Grid and TEPSCO will assist DESCO in the underground substation’s design, contractor management, safety assessment, and risk reduction. In the future, DESCO plans to build commercial facilities atop on the underground substation, and it has also decided to introduce a gas-insulated transformer, which is a unique Japanese technology that will make the facility non-flammable.