Being a manufacturing process based on thermal material removal, it has been known for decades that Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) affects the properties of surface layers of machined workpieces, notably by inducing residual stresses. These stresses are undesirable as they can contribute to crack formation in ED machined parts in on-load operation. Thus, their minimization is preferable. In this research the influence of different combinations of EDM parameters (namely discharge duration and discharge current) on characteristics of residual stresses is studied and compared. However, industrial ED machining usually consists of a sequence of process regimes that each represents a thermal load for the material and consequently each causes an individual profile of residual stress. Therefore, the resulting effect of these combined loads is also investigated. The findings contribute to the knowledge of the process signature of Electrical Discharge Machining as well as they allow for improved planning of industrial EDM processes.