International

Electrotechnical
Commission

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The International Electrotechnical

Commission[3] (IEC; in French:
Commission électrotechnique
assessment systems that certify whether
equipment, system or components
conform to its international standards.
 International Electrotechnical Commission
Commission électrotechnique internationale

Logotype of the IEC.

Abbreviation IEC

Motto "Making
electrotechnology
work for you"

Formation 26 June 1906

London, United
Kingdom
Type Association[1]

Legal status Active

Purpose Standardization for

electrical technology,
electronic and
related.

Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland

Location List
Geneva, Switzerland
Sydney, Australia
São Paulo, Brazil
Nairobi, Kenya
Singapore
 Worcester, United
States
Membership 86 countries
 Algeria
 Argentina
 Australia
 Austria
 Belarus
 Belgium
 Brazil
 Bulgaria
 Canada
 Colombia
 Chile
 China
 Croatia
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Egypt
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 India
 Indonesia
 Iran
 Iraq
 Ireland
 Israel
 Italy
 Japan
 Libya
 Luxembourg
 Malaysia
 Mexico
 Netherlands
 New Zealand
 Norway
 Oman
 Pakistan
 Philippines
 Poland
 Portugal
 Qatar
 Romania
 Russia
 Saudi Arabia
 Serbia
 Singapore
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 South Korea
 South Africa
 Spain
 Sweden
  Switzerland
 Thailand
 Turkey
 Ukraine
  United Arab
Emirates
 United Kingdom
 United States
Official languages English, French
President Yinbiao Shu[2]
Budget CHF 20 Million / US$
20.938 Million / €19.3
Million

Website Official website

All electrotechnologies are covered by IEC

Standards, including energy production
and distribution, electronics, magnetics
and electromagnetics, electroacoustics,
multimedia, telecommunication and
medical technology, as well as associated
general disciplines such as terminology
and symbols, electromagnetic
compatibility, measurement and
performance, dependability, design and
development, safety and the environment.

History
The first International Electrical Congress
took place in 1881 at the International
Exposition of Electricity, held in Paris. At
that time the International System of
Electrical and Magnetic Units was agreed
to.

The International Electrotechnical

Commission held its inaugural meeting on
26 June 1906, following discussions
among the British Institution of Electrical
Engineers, the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, and others, which
began at the 1900 Paris International
Electrical Congress, and continued with
Colonel R. E. B. Crompton playing a key
role. In 1906, Lord Kelvin was elected as
the first President of the International
Electrotechnical Commission.[7]

International Electrotechnical Commission - Central

Office - Geneva
The IEC was instrumental in developing
and distributing standards for units of
measurement, particularly the gauss,
hertz, and weber.[8] It also first proposed a
system of standards, the Giorgi System,
which ultimately became the SI, or
Système International d’unités (in English,
the International System of Units).

In 1938, it published a multilingual

international vocabulary to unify
terminology relating to electrical,
electronic and related technologies. This
effort continues, and the International
Electrotechnical Vocabulary (the on-line
version of which is known as the
Electropedia) remains an important work in
the electrical and electronic industries.

The CISPR (Comité International Spécial

des Perturbations Radioélectriques) – in
English, the International Special
Committee on Radio Interference – is one
of the groups founded by the IEC.

Currently, 86 countries are IEC members

while another 87 participate in the Affiliate
Country Programme, which is not a form
of membership but is designed to help
industrializing countries get involved with
the IEC. Originally located in London, the
Commission moved to its current
headquarters in Geneva in 1948.

It has regional centres in Africa [(Nairobi,

Kenya)], Asia-Pacific (Singapore), Latin
America (São Paulo, Brazil) and North
America (Boston, United States).

Today, the IEC is the world's leading

international organization in its field, and
its standards are adopted as national
standards by its members. The work is
done by some 10,000 electrical and
electronics experts from industry,
government, academia, test labs and
others with an interest in the subject.

IEC standards

Cable with an angled IEC connector (IEC 60320 C13)

and an EU plug (CEE 7/7)
and an EU plug (CEE 7/7).

IEC standards have numbers in the range

60000–79999 and their titles take a form
such as IEC 60417: Graphical symbols for
use on equipment. Following the Dresden
Agreement with CENELEC the numbers of
older IEC standards were converted in
1997 by adding 60000, for example IEC 27
became IEC 60027. Standards of the
60000 series are also found preceded by
EN to indicate that the IEC standard is also
adopted by CENELEC as a European
standard; for example IEC 60034 is also
available as EN 60034.

The IEC cooperates closely with the

International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) and the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). In
addition, it works with several major
standards development organizations,
including the IEEE with which it signed a
cooperation agreement in 2002, which
was amended in 2008 to include joint
development work.
Standards developed jointly with ISO such
as ISO/IEC 26300 (Open Document Format
for Office Applications (OpenDocument)
v1.0), ISO/IEC 27001 (Information
technology, Security techniques,
Information security management systems,
Requirements), and CASCO ISO/IEC 17000
series, carry the acronym of both
organizations. The use of the ISO/IEC
prefix covers publications from ISO/IEC
Joint Technical Committee 1 - Information
Technology, as well as conformity
assessment standards developed by ISO
CASCO and IEC CAB (Conformity
Assessment Board). Other standards
developed in cooperation between IEC and
ISO are assigned numbers in the 80000
series, such as IEC 82045–1.

IEC standards are also being adopted by

other certifying bodies such as BSI (United
Kingdom), CSA (Canada), UL &
ANSI/INCITS (United States), SABS (South
Africa), SAI (Australia), SPC/GB (China)
and DIN (Germany). IEC standards
adopted by other certifying bodies may
have some noted differences from the
original IEC standard.[9]

Membership and
participation

   Full members
   Associate members
   Affiliates
The IEC is made up of members, called
national committees, and each NC
represents its nation's electrotechnical
interests in the IEC. This includes
manufacturers, providers, distributors and
vendors, consumers and users, all levels
of governmental agencies, professional
societies and trade associations as well as
standards developers from national
standards bodies. National committees
are constituted in different ways. Some
NCs are public sector only, some are a
combination of public and private sector,
and some are private sector only. About
90% of those who prepare IEC standards
work in industry.

IEC Member countries include:[10]

Full members
Algeria
Argentina – Instituto Argentino de
Normalización y Certificación (IRAM)
Australia – Standards Australia
Austria – Österreichischer Verband für
Elektrotechnik (ÖVE)
Belarus
Belgium
Brazil – Comitê Brasileiro de
Eletricidade, Eletrônica, Iluminação e
Telecomunicações (Cobei)
Bulgaria
Canada – Standards Council of Canada
Colombia - Colombian Institute of
Technical Standards and Certification
Chile
China – Standardization Administration
of China (SAC)
Croatia – Hrvatski Zavod za Norme[11]
(HZN)
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Finland – SESKO
France – AFNOR
Germany – Deutsche Kommission
Elektrotechnik Elektronik
Informationstechnik im DIN und VDE
(DKE)
Greece
Hungary
India – Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy – Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano
(CEI)
Japan – Japanese Industrial Standards
Committee
Libya
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Perú
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia – Federal Agency for Technical
Regulation and Metrology
(Rostekhregulirovaniye)
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Korea – Korean Agency for
Technology and Standards (KATS )
South Africa – South African Bureau of
Standards (SABS)
Spain – Asociación Española de
Normalización y Certificación (AENOR)
Sweden – Swedish Electrical Standard
(SEK)
Switzerland – Swiss Electrotechnical
Committee (CES)
Thailand
Turkey – Turkish Standards Institution
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom – British
Electrotechnical Committee (BEC), part
of the British Standards Institution (BSI)
 United States – American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) (USNC/IEC );
The National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (NEMA) also helps to
develop and promote IEC standards[12]

Associate members (limited voting

and managerial rights)
…

Source:[13]

Albania[14]
Bahrain
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cuba
Cyprus
Estonia
Georgia[14]
Iceland – Icelandic Standards (IST)
Jordan[14]
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
North Macedonia
 Malta
Moldova[14]
Montenegro
Morocco – COMELEC[15]
Nigeria
Sri Lanka
Tunisia
Vietnam – Vietnamese National
Committee Directorate for Standards
and Quality (STAMEQ)

Affiliates …
In 2001 and in response to calls from the
WTO to open itself to more developing
nations, the IEC launched the Affiliate
Country Programme to encourage
developing nations to become involved in
the Commission's work or to use its
International Standards. Countries signing
a pledge to participate in the work and to
encourage the use of IEC Standards in
national standards and regulations are
granted access to a limited number of
technical committee documents for the
purposes of commenting. In addition, they
can select a limited number of IEC
Standards for their national standards'
library. Countries as of 2011 participating
in the Affiliate Country Programme are:[16]

Afghanistan
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Brunei Darussalam
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Congo (Democratic Rep. of)
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Fiji
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Kyrgyzstan
Lao Pdr
Lebanon
Lesotho
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mongolia
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Niger
Palestinian Authority
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Rwanda
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
 Turkmenistan
Uganda
Uruguay
Venezuela
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to International
Electrotechnical Commission.
 International Organisation for
Standardisation
List of IEC standards
List of IEC Technical Committees

References
1. www.zefix.ch
https://www.zefix.ch/en/search/entity
/list/firm/962758?
name=International%20Electrotechnic
al%20Commission&searchType=exac
t . Retrieved 2019-06-27. Missing or
empty |title= (help)
2. IEC Officers , CH: International
Electrotechnical Commission, 2020
3. "IEC Statutes and Rules of Procedure"
(PDF). IEC. 2011-07-01. p. 30. Archived
from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-
08. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
4. IEC Organization and funding , CH:
International Electrotechnical
Commission, 2017
5. International Geneva, Facts and
Figures (PDF), CH: Swiss Government,
2017
 . "What the IEC does - IEC conformity
assessment systems" . International
Electrotechnical Commission.
Retrieved 2019-07-28.
7. The Life of William Thomson, Baron
Kelvin of Largs by Silvanus Phillips
Thompson, CUP 2011,
ISBN 1108027180, 9781108027182
. Electrical Engineering for Non-
Electrical Engineers. 2013-12-10.
ISBN 978-1482228830.
 9. IEC Webstore | Welcome .
Webstore.iec.ch.
10. IEC full and associate members
11. https://www.iso.org/member/1680.ht
ml
12. "The IEC and NEMA" Archived 2009-
01-08 at the Wayback Machine,
nema.org, accessed 2009-04-12
13. IEC membership levels
14. Formerly participating in the affiliate
programme.
15. "Morocco, the 5th largest African
economy, joins the IEC" . IEC. 27 July
2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
1 . IEC affiliates

External links
Official website
IEC Webstore
Free online multilingual dictionary of 20
000 electrical and electronic terms
IEC System of Conformity Assessment
for Electrotechnical Equipment and
Components
IEC System for quality assessment of
electronic components and associated
materials and processes
IEC Scheme for certification to
standards for electrical equipment for
explosive atmospheres
IEC System for Certification to
Standards Relating to Equipment for
Use in Renewable Energy Applications
List of IEC Technical Committees on IEC
Official Website
 All IEC standards available in English
and Russian (translation) languages,
Standards of International
Electrotechnical Committee [sic]

Technical penes …

Graphical Symbols
Hydraulic Turbines
Switchgear
Dependability
Power Systems Management
Fibre Optics
 Multimedia

Standards and tools in database

format
…

International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary
IEC Glossary
IEC 60061: Lamp caps, lampholders and
gauges
IEC 60417 - ISO 7000: Graphical
Symbols for Use on Equipment
IEC 60617: Graphical Symbols for
Diagrams
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=International_Electrotechnical_Commission&o
ldid=953921062"

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