Dear Readers,

If you examine closely the topics we will discuss in this issue, you will find many themes ranging from rural areas electrification projects to megacities. Megacities and rural areas are two extreme cases for transformers. Rural areas, which are usually vast and scarcely populated, have simpler technical requirements, however, the building of needed infrastructure is harder to finance. Densely populated urban areas, where many people live in a smaller area, usually have the finances for infrastructure projects but the technical requirements are extremely demanding. Since megacities are to some extent the highlight of this issue, let me say something about this topic.

Namely, according to the UN definition, megacity is a city or urban area that has more than 10 million inhabitants. Also, according to the UN by 2050 about 68 % of the global population will live in urban areas. There are already huge mega clusters worldwide, 28 of them, with nearly 500 million people, what makes 6.5 % of the world’s population. More than half of these megacities are situated in Asia.