Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power (ZJWEU) was founded in 1953 as Hangzhou Hydropower School. After 50 years of continuous progress and hard work, and especially in the past 10 years, the university has achieved remarkable success and formed a distinctive manner of schooling. It is devoted to training higher applied personnel with special skills to meet the needs of water conservancy, the hydropower industry and regional economic development.

ZJWEU is now located on No 583, Xuelin Street, Xiasha district of Hangzhou, the famous elegant cultural city of Zhejiang province. It covers an area of 84 hectares. The university is equipped with an excellent faculty team of over 470 full-time teachers, including 206 professors. The number of registered students is 9,100, more than 3,900 of whom are undergraduates. The total value of the facilities and equipment for teaching surpasses 90 million yuan ($14.1 million). A new library was completed at ZJWEU in 2003. It holds more than 810,000 volumes and more than 1,100 periodicals. In recent years with professions continuously increasing the college has enlarged funding for books, enriched the quantity of professional resources, and generally moved towards new professional construction.

ZJWEU has nine schools and three departments, with 43 majors. There is one undergraduate specialist attached to Zhejiang Industrial University and two joint-programs with the Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology of New Zealand. The university has formed a system in its disciplines focused on water conservancy and hydropower and the collaborative development of machinery, civil engineering, management and other support for the electric power industry.