Introduction  With the slowdown of power demand and the reduction of traditional thermal power projects in China, the business environment of electric power design enterprises is deteriorating. But the PPP mode brings a new chance for electric power design enterprises to develop non-electric business and realize the transformation.

  Method  In order to identify the development prospects of electric power design enterprises to participate in the PPP projects, the paper attempted to identify internal factors such as strengths and weaknesses, analysed opportunities and threats using the SWOT method.

  Results  The results we obtained demonstrate that electric power design enterprises have unique advantages in participating in PPP projects, and should make full preparations from the six dimensions of system, ability, market, resources, risk and talent based on national policies, macroeconomic environment and their own situation.

  Conclusion  This work provides some reasonable countermeasures accordingly for electric power design enterprises to participate in the PPP projects, and suggests that only when electric power design enterprises make up their own deficiencies they can make full use of their advantages and reduce the investment risks of PPP projects, so as to achieve sustainable development.