On 23 July 1894 the Compañía Sevillana de Electricidad, Sociedad Anónima was founded, with capital coming from the then-new German electrical generation equipment company Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) and from Deutsche Bank.
In 1926, CSE acquired the Empresa Rondeña de Electricidad (based in Ronda), giving CSE the dominant position in generating electricity in the province of Málaga, including hydroelectric generation on the river Guadalevín, in the Tajo de Ronda.
The process of expansion culminated in 1968 with the acquisition of the Centrales Térmicas del Litoral, coastal thermal power stations built by the state-owned Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI).
[8] Deregulation of the Spanish market for electricity as part of entry into the European Union, brought in Endesa as an investor, purchasing 33.5 percent of the company in 1991.
In 1996 Grupo Endesa owned 75 percent of the company's shares, giving them absolute control of CSE.