POWERCHINA has many thermal power and power transmission and distribution research centers and is a world leader in power design, for example, for ultra-super-critical coal-fired turbine units with high parameter and large capacity, thermal power plants with super-critical air-cooling units, ultra-high voltage AC power transmission and transformation, ultra-high voltage DC power transmission and convertor stations, normal ultra-high voltage substations, underground substations, ultra-super voltage cable transmission, city cable tunnels, new energy power generation, distributed power generation sites, micro power grids, joint wind and photovoltaic power generation systems that integrate storage and transmission, smart grids, and electronic car battery charging stations. The company also has unique approaches to the design of circuits under special geological conditions, power engineering on frozen plateaus, and many other areas.

In information technology applications, POWERCHINA uses 3D visualization tools in design work and pays attention to the development of digitalized power grids. It has done research on integrated collaborative power plant design systems for various disciplines, 3D digitized GIS systems for power planning and design, 3D digitized integrated operations for power grids, and integrated project management systems for EPC. These studies have improved efficiency and product quality and have increased the company's competitiveness in the world.