The basis and vision of the Institute's work were given by Milan Vidmar, the respectable Senior of the Slovenian Electric Power Engineers, world-wide recognised chess-player, Rector of the University of Ljubljana, President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts during the second world war period, and the founder of the today's Slovenian electric power research institute that is bearing his name. It was quite early that he realised that enabling development of the technologically extremely demanding electric power system will necessitate participation of specialists pursuing high professional standards. Being a top-level world-wide known and acknowledged specialist, he was offered several times to found and manage various institutes all over the world (Prague, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow). He nevertheless couldn't help waiting for the day when he was able to establish his own, Slovenian, electric power research institute.

The formal date when the Institute began its operating was June 1, 1948 after it had been founded on May 21, 1948 by the Ministry for Electricity Supply Economy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1950, the Committee for Electricity Supply Economy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia decided the Institute to fall within the competence of the Ministry for Electricity Supply Economy of the Republic of Slovenia and in the same year within the competence of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In the period 1955 - 1958 it was promoted into a scientific institution. It soon expanded its activity to encompass the field of electrical industry and was named Institute for Electricity Supply Economy and Electrical Industry. To acknowledge the merits of its founder, in 1968 it was renamed into "Elektroinštitut Milan Vidmar", Institute for Electricity Supply Economy and Electrical Industry. The non-Slovenian speakers know it as the "Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute".

The first to head the Institute was Prof. Dr. Milan Vidmar. He defined the Institute's fields of activity and development targets. The latter were of such a long-term character that they are still being used as a platform for the today's Institute's work. There were ten people employed at the Institute at the time. After working in temporary premises, they moved in November 1952 into a new, for that time very modern, building enabling the Institute to cover the needs of the entire country, i.e. the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which after 1991 gradually disintegrated into five independent states one of which is Slovenia.

• After-war electrification of the entire country, planning and development of the power network enabling interconnection among individual power sources and users,
• Completion of the 110, 220 and 400 kV networks,
• Connection of the 220 kV network with SUDEL,
• Connection of the 400 kV network with the European interconnection,
• Optimisation of planning, construction and exploitation of sources and networks in Slovenia,
• Building of the Krško nuclear power plant,
• Higher standards for electricity quality,
• Modernisation of procedures and adoption of new technologies into the Slovenian electric power system.