The building was built according to a pilot project developed in the 1920s. Some researchers attribute authorship to Leningrad architect R.N. Kokhanova. However, this fact is highly doubtful, since during this period Raisa Kokhanova was a student and graduated from LIIKS (modern name St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering) in 1930.

A striking example of the Suprematist architecture of Leningrad. The building is a rare example in the central districts of St. Petersburg of an industrial structure, solved in constructivism. Similar projects were created at that time under the influence of Lenin's plans for electrifying the country and the task of providing workers with a new mode of transport, which was to be developed. The building is a historical monument to the Soviet GOELRO plan and a work of architecture, made in the spirit of the ideas and stylistics of constructivism.

 The building belongs to the State Unitary Enterprise St. Petersburg "Gorelektrotrans" and until 2014 provided voltage to the trolleybus and tram network of the Central District of the city, generating a voltage of 550V. There was a district dispatch center, which was tied to the management of dozens of substations "Gorelektrotrans". In the spring of 2014, the substation was disconnected, on March 5 it was accepted as decommissioned.