An overview concerning who we are and what we do. Mission and goals, corporate structure, history and more. There’s something here for everyone.

Founded in 1906 with British scientist Lord Kelvin as its first president, the IEC has a long history of service to the market. This section explains in comprehensive terms our role, our goals, some of the more interesting parts of our history, who we work with and what all the acronyms stand for, plus more.

This gives you an overview of how all of the pieces fit together, the role of Central Office and the regional centres and who participates in the work of preparing our standards.

Our members are national committees, not countries. Experts in electricity and electronics participate in technical committees and do the work of preparing our standards. The Affiliate Country Programme is for those who might be interested in getting involved but have limited resources for doing so.