Early plans In the lower reaches of the Dnieper River, there was an almost -long stretch that was filled with the
Dnieper Rapids. This is approximately the distance between the modern cities
Dnipro and
Zaporizhzhia. During the 19th century, engineers worked on the projects to make the river navigable. Projects for flooding the rapids were proposed by in 1893, in 1894, S. Maximov and
Genrikh Graftio in 1905, A. Rundo and D. Yuskevich in 1910, I. Rozov and L. Yurgevich in 1912, Mohylko. While the main objective of these projects was to improve navigation,
hydroelectric power generation was developed concurrently, in terms of the "utilization of the freely flowing water". G. Graftio's 1905 project included three dams with a small area of flooding.
GOELRO plan and construction, 1921–1941 , The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station construction manager. The Dneprostroi Dam was built on vacated land in the countryside at the old river crossing known as Kichkas just north of
Khortytsia island. The reason for building it was to stimulate
Soviet industrialization. A special company was formed called Dniprobud or Dneprostroi (hence the dam's alternative name) that later built other dams on the
Dnieper and exists to this day. The design for the dam that was accepted dates back to the
USSR GOELRO electrification plan which was adopted in the early 1920s. The station was designed by a group of engineers headed by Prof.
Ivan Alexandrov, a chief expert of GOELRO, who later became a head of the
RSFSR State Planning Commission. The station was planned to provide electricity for several
aluminium production plants and a high quality iron and steel plant that were also to be constructed in the area. The DniproHES project used the experience gained from the construction of the
Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Stations at
Niagara Falls,
Ontario, the
Hydroelectric Island Maligne,
Quebec, and the
La Gabelle Generating Station on the
St. Maurice River. On 17 September 1932, the Soviet government awarded six American engineers (including
Hugh Cooper, William V. Murphy, and G. Thompson, engineers of
General Electric) with the
Order of the Red Banner of Labour for "the outstanding work in the construction of DniproHES".
Soviet industrialization was accompanied by a wide propaganda effort.
Leon Trotsky, by then out of power, campaigned for the idea within the ruling
Politburo in early 1926. In a speech to the
Komsomol youth movement, he said: :In the south the Dnieper runs its course through the wealthiest industrial lands; and it is wasting the prodigious weight of its pressure, playing over age-old rapids and waiting until we harness its stream, curb it with dams, and compel it to give lights to cities, to drive factories, and to enrich ploughland. We shall compel it! The dam and its buildings were designed by the
constructivist architects Viktor Vesnin and
Nikolai Kolli. Construction began in 1927, and the plant started to produce electricity in October 1932.
World War II and post-war reconstruction During
World War II, the strategically important dam and plant were dynamited by retreating
Red Army troops in 1941 after
Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. American journalist
H. R. Knickerbocker wrote that year: The resulting flood killed between 20,000 and 100,000 civilians, along with Red Army officers crossing the river at the time. Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Linnikov claims that such numbers are exaggerated and the real death toll is closer to 3,000, as was reported in the contemporary German press. While a second attempt at dynamiting the dam by retreating German troops in 1943 was averted by Soviet scouts, who cut the wire that was supposed to detonate the explosives, the dam remained extensively damaged.
General Electric shipped three new 90 MW generators for the dam in 1946, replacing the 77.5 MW generators destroyed during World War II. Each generator weighed over 1,021 tonnes and had a frame diameter of .
Independent Ukraine The reconstruction of the power plant started in 1996 and was supported by the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the
Swiss Government. As a result of this, the capacity of the plant increased by 42 MW. The second stage of the reconstruction started in 2007 and, as of 2020, was ongoing. Beginning in October 2022, Russia launched a series of attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including the Dnipro dam. It was critically damaged during an
attack that occurred on 22 March 2024, the dam and its power station was struck by eight missiles. The attack caused damage to the dam's structure, although officials said there was no risk of a breach. The head of the Ukrainian state-owned energy company
Ukrhydroenergo, , said that the Hydroelectric Power Station-2 (HPS-2), one of the dam's two power stations, was in critical condition after being struck directly by two missiles, damaging crane girders and a support pillar. A trolleybus travelling along the dam's roadway was also struck, setting it on fire and forcing the closure of the dam to motorists. One person was reported to have been killed in the attack. The attack led to the station losing a third of its generation capacity and Hr 159,305 ($4,100) in damage to water resources, as well as a suspension of water intake in
Bilenke, downstream from the dam. Environmental damage caused by the attack was estimated to be at least $3.5 million. On 12 April 2024, the dam caught on fire as a result of drone strikes launched by Russia. The fire caused around half a tonne of oil products leaking into the
Dnieper River. The facility was again left in a "critical state" and did not generate any energy following another Russian attack on 1 June. By March 2025, Russians had launched 46 strikes against the power plant. == Power generation ==