This article analyzes how productivity in the electric power industries (electricity, gas, steam and air condition supply) is affected through investments in R&D for OECD countries between 1995 and 2014. The accumulated R&D expenditures represent the current stock of knowledge or technology. Using a detailed input-output matrix for country-industry combinations allows us to distinguish between four types of spillovers: domestic own sector, foreign own sector as well as domestic and foreign other sector spillovers. The foreign spillovers we capture thus occur through the use of (imported) inputs from the electric power industries or from other sectors. Our estimates show that the productivity of the electric power industries is much more influenced by the transfer of embodied technology from other industries than by investments of these industries themselves. Countries with the highest stock of R&D are mainly responsible for these international technology spillovers. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.