Kerala State Electricity Board commenced functioning on 31-3-1957 After Noon as per order no. EL1-6475/56/PW dated 7-3-1957 of the Kerala State Government. It had 5 members with Sri K P Sreedharan Nair as Chairman. All the staff belonging to the erstwhile Electricity Department was transferred to the Board. The 'Board' consisting of the Chairman and the Members is the Supreme Governing Body.

State Electricity Consultative Council

The State Government by their notification EL3-9345 dated 21-2-1958 constituted the State Electricity Consultative Council under section 16 of the Electricity Supply Act. The Council functions as consultative body and the Board is required to place before the council the annual financial statement and supplementary statements if any before submitting such statements to the State Government.
Over the years, the Board has grown many times to reach the present position catering to the demands of the industrial and domestic consumers, whose per capita consumption has shown a significant increase due to industrialization and increased usage of electric household goods, improved economy etc. While it was possible to meet the energy demand from the Boards own power plants in 1958, it has to resort to import of power from Central Sector and also buy power from other power generating utilities within the state to meet the demand for power at present. To meet the ever-increasing demand for power in the future, the Board has plans to take up construction of more generating plants mostly in the hydel sector, with proportionate investment and schemes in the transmission and distribution sector to improve the system. In order to improve the functioning of the Board, the Board has been segregated into three profit centers as part of the power policy declared in 1998 by the Kerala State Government.

Generation

The history of Hydropower development in Kerala begins with the commissioning of Pallivasal Hydro Electric Project in 1940. Next few decades saw the progressive developments of various schemes. Sabarigiri in 1966 and Idukki in 1976 are milestones in the endeavour of power development of Kerala State Electricity Board.    
There are 24 Hydel Projects owned by KSEB and 2 by private agencies. The Wind Farm located at Kanjikkode with an installed capacity of 2.025 MW is the only one utilising the non-conventional energy source. The Brahmapuram and Kozhikode Diesel Power Plants with an installed capacity of 106.6 MW and 128 MW uses LSHS as fuel and are owned by KSEB.
The Kerala State Electricity Board has an installed capacity of 2087.23 MW on its own with another 570.016 MW contributed by NTPC and Private Sector producers taking the total installed capacity of State to 2657.24 MW.
The other plants that are catering to the energy demands of the state are the Kayamkulam plant of NTPC with an installed capacity of 359.58 MW and the BSES, Kochi Plant with an installed capacity of 157.00 MW. The 20.44 MW plant of KPCL, Kasaragod is the latest entrant in the IPP segment of generation. The balance is met through import of power from the Central Sector.

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