Ukraine has about 22400 rivers, 110 of them are longer than 100 km. The Dnieper, the Dniester, the South Bug, the Tisa are main Ukrainain water-ways that form hydro potential of the country. According to preliminary designs and feasibility studies the technically feasible hydro potential of Ukraine is estimated as 21.5 mln MWh while economically feasible potential is 17.0 mln.MWh. Hydropower resources are mostly concentrated in the Dniester river basin (part from Kyiv to the river mouth). Now about 60% of the economical hydropotential of Ukraine has been developed.

Due to the construction of the Dnieper HPP cascade the economical potential of the lower and middle basin was developed. Hydro potential of the Dniester, the South Bug and some other rivers are under development now.

Several different designs of the Dnieper river usage were elaborated at the beginning of the 20th century including hydroprojects construction of 90 MWh total capacity. But none of them was not implemented. Only in 1920 in the famous state plan known as GOELRO plan it was aimed to construct a hydrodevelopment on the Dnieper river near Zaporizhzhya city. Dnieproges commissioned in 1932 became a centre of the largest industrial and agricultural region.

At the same time many hydropower projects of dozens and hundreds kW capacity were constructed on small rivers of Ukraine. At the end of 1929 there were 150 rural HPPs of 8.4MW total capacity that produced 9.6kWh per year. Among them: Voznesenskaya HPP on the South Bug (840kW) - commissioned in 1927, Bukskaya HPP in Cherkassy region (570kW) - commissioned in 1928, Sutisskaya HPP in Vinnitsa region (240kW) etc. Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya HPP (1650kW) was put into operation in 1934. It was uptodate project and had automatic systems of control, protection and signalling.

During World War II some of the HPPs were destroyed. When Ukraine was liberated it began rebuilding and reconstruction of destroyed hydroprojects and at the same time it began construction of new small hydro plants for rural electrification. 1944 - beginning of Dnieproges reconstruction. Due to invention of more effective hydrounits, HPP capacity increased by 100 MW and became equal to 650 MW. During five years after the Wolrd War II it were rebuilt and constructed 956 small HPPs of 30MW total capacity.

The years of 1950-1955 are markered with commissioning of new state, kolkhoz and interkolkhoz HPPs including Steblevskaya HPP (2.8MW), Chernyatskaya HPP (1.4MW), Boguslavskaya HPP (1.13MW), Novoarkhangelskaya HPP (1.1MW), Sutisskaya HPP (1MW) and others.

Then began construction of medium and large-scale projects on the Dnieper, the Dniester, the Tisa, the South Bug rivers. In 1956 it started construction of several large state rural HPPs (Ladyzhinskaya and Gayvoronskaya on the South Bug, Ternovskaya on the Sinukha, some HPPs on the Zbruch).

Constructed HPPs on small rivers provided great benefits for rural electrification at the first stages. But further construction of HPPs on small rivers was reduced and then stopped because of their relatively small capacity, non-benefitial factors and due to development of state power systems.

Studies on the scheme called "Large Dnieper" began in 1930th but no activity was registered upto the end of the Wolrd War II. By 1949-1953 specialists of Ukrhydroproject Ltd. elaborated "Feasibility study on complex use of the Dnieper river" where it was planned to exploit the potential of the river basin. More than 90% of hydropower potential of the Dnieper river is concentrated in the area from the Pripyat river estuary to Black Sea (more than 1000km) and can be utilized after construction of HPPs cascade.

Nowadays designing and rendering engineering services abroad are of substantial efforts of Ukrhydroproject's specialists. Thakmo HPP (150MW), Yali HPP (720MW), Can Don HPP (72MW) were constructed in Vietnam following Ukrhydroproject's design. As the Leader of consortium Ukrhydroproject Ltd. elaborated design and supplied equipment for San Rafael hydro development in Mexico. Ведется проектирование насосной станции Нассирия в Ираке. Throughout its activity Ukrhydroproject Ltd. took part in development of projects in such countries as China, Brasil and others.