How to Verify a Chinese EPC Contractor's Track Record: Qualifications, Licences and Public Records

Short answer. In China, who may build a power project is regulated by grade, and grades are tied to past performance. A contractor's qualification grade is therefore itself a statement about what it has built, and the system behind it produces public records: qualification decisions, project records, credit entries, penalties. Verification means walking from the legal entity to the qualification certificate, to the power-facility installation licence, to the credit file, and finally to the completion and warranty documents of the projects claimed. This guide sets out the rules behind each step. It names no contractor.

Step 1: the legal entity

Under the Interim Regulation on Enterprise Information Disclosure (revised 2024), market regulators publish registration and filing information, chattel-mortgage and equity-pledge registrations and administrative penalties through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System within 20 working days. Match the name on the reference list to the registered name; a qualification held by a parent is not held by the subsidiary that signs.

Step 2: the construction qualification and its grade

The Regulations on the Administration of Construction Enterprise Qualifications (MOHURD Order No. 22, 22 January 2015, amended 2016 and 2018) provide that enterprises apply for qualifications on the basis of assets, key personnel, completed project performance and technical equipment, and may carry out construction only within the licensed scope after obtaining the certificate. Qualifications fall into three sequences — general construction contracting, specialised contracting and construction labour. Licensing authorities must publish qualification decisions and make them easy to query, and must keep enterprise credit files covering basic information, qualifications, performance, quality and safety, contract performance, complaints and violations. A certificate has an expiry date (renewal must be applied for three months before), and changes of name, address, registered capital or legal representative must be registered with the licensing authority within one month after the business-registration change. Check the certificate's validity dates, entity name, sequence and category.

What the power grade says about past work. The Construction Enterprise Qualification Standards (建市[2014]159号) were issued on 6 November 2014, took effect on 1 January 2015 and replaced the 2001 standards. Electric power general contracting has four grades. Grade 1 requires net assets of at least RMB 100 million and, in the last five years, construction of two of five work types with acceptable quality: cumulative power-station capacity of at least 1.8 GW; six units of 200 MW; 600 km of 220 kV lines; eight 220 kV substations; 100 km of 220 kV cable (the standard reads "above" and "below" as inclusive). Grade 2 requires net assets of at least RMB 40 million and two of five listed work types in the last five years, including cumulative station capacity of at least 1 GW and 110 kV line, substation or cable works; Grade 3 requires net assets of at least RMB 8 million and a technical lead or registered constructor who has led at least two projects of the category. The scope follows the grade: Grade 1 may build all generation works and lines and substations of any voltage; Grade 2 generation units up to and including 200 MW and lines and substations up to and including 220 kV; Grade 3 units up to and including 100 MW and up to and including 110 kV. The standard defines electric power works to include thermal, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar and other generation plus transmission and distribution and their auxiliary works, so a solar EPC is judged by the same category. Performance counted for a qualification means projects the applicant lawfully contracted and completed independently; the super-grade standard is set separately; and a general contractor may carry out 工程总承包 and project management within its licensed scope.

A Grade 1 power contractor has demonstrated the listed volumes to a licensing authority — more than a brochure. But a grade proves a category of experience, not experience with your technology, grid code or site. Later notices have simplified some indicators of the 2014 standard; check for amendments.

Step 3: the EPC definition and the two-qualification rule

"EPC" in Chinese practice is 工程总承包. The MOHURD/NDRC Measures for housing and municipal infrastructure projects (建市规〔2019〕12号, 23 December 2019, effective 1 March 2020) define it as general contracting of design, procurement and construction — or design and construction — with full responsibility for quality, safety, schedule and cost. Under those Measures an EPC contractor must hold both design and construction qualifications matching the project scale, or form a consortium of qualified design and construction units, and must have project-management systems, financial and risk-bearing capacity, and similar design, construction or EPC performance. The EPC contractor signs the engineering warranty undertaking (工程保修书) with the owner and may not refuse warranty duties by pointing at its subcontractors; completed EPC performance may be declared as design or construction performance.

The Measures' formal scope is housing and municipal works, so they are cited for the logic, not as a power-sector rule: an EPC counterparty should show a design and a construction qualification, or a consortium agreement naming who holds which.

Step 4: the electric power installation licence

Separate from the construction qualification is the licence for installing, repairing and testing power facilities. The Measures for the Electric Power Facility Installation (Repair, Test) Licence were adopted on 10 April 2025, published as NDRC Order No. 30 on 11 April 2025, took effect on 1 July 2025 and repealed the 2020 version. A licence is required to install, repair or test transmission facilities — including a generation project's step-up substation and export line — and supply and receiving facilities; no unlicensed unit may do so. The licence has three categories (installation, repair, test) and three grades: Grade 1 for all voltage levels, Grade 2 for 330 kV and below, Grade 3 for 35 kV and below. Grade 1 and 2 installation licences require, within the last three years, quality-acceptable installation performance at 330 (220) kV and 10–35 kV respectively, and a peak annual settled installation revenue of at least RMB 200 million and RMB 30 million respectively. The licence is valid for six years; NEA regional offices must publish licensing conditions, procedures and processing status; and power enterprises may not award installation, repair or test work to unlicensed units or beyond licensed scope.

For a solar or storage project this licence covers the grid-side works. Check the grade against the connection voltage, and who holds it — the EPC or a subcontractor.

Step 5: project and credit records

MOHURD's Interim Measures for Construction Market Credit Management (notice dated 11 December 2017) apply to housing and municipal works and task the ministry with building the National Construction Market Supervision Public Service Platform and publishing credit information of market parties. Credit information consists of basic information (registration, qualifications, project information, registered practitioners), good-credit information and bad-credit information — administrative penalties by county-level or higher housing authorities and other recognised bad records. Good and bad credit information must be published and pushed to the national platform within seven working days; basic information is published long-term, good-credit information generally for three years, and bad-credit information generally for six months to three years and not shorter than the penalty period.

Project records and penalties therefore exist in a public system with defined retention periods. A reference project that cannot be matched to a filed record, or penalties within the retention window, need an explanation. (The platform could not be reached from our session; no live example is shown.)

Step 6: what a real project leaves behind

The Regulation on Quality Management of Construction Projects (State Council Order No. 279, 2000; revised 2017 and 2019) requires owners to award works to units with the corresponding qualification grade and forbids splitting a project to award it piecemeal. Contractors must contract only within their grade, and where a general contractor lawfully subcontracts, it and the subcontractor are jointly and severally liable for the subcontracted work's quality. On completion, the owner organises acceptance with the design, construction and supervision units and must file the acceptance report and the approvals of planning, fire and environmental authorities within 15 days of passing acceptance. The regulation lists minimum warranty periods by category — including two years for electrical lines, water pipework, equipment installation and fit-out — with warranty periods for items not listed agreed between employer and contractor; the warranty period runs from the date completion acceptance is passed. Contracting beyond one's grade is fined 2–4% of the contract price for construction units, with possible downgrade or revocation; unlawful subcontracting is fined 0.5–1%.

For each claimed reference, ask for the signed contract naming this entity, the completion acceptance report, the filing receipt and the warranty undertaking with dates. A firm that worked as a subcontractor appears in the subcontract, not as general contractor in the acceptance report.

Sector rules that point back to qualifications

Entities performing design, construction, installation and commissioning of distributed PV projects must meet the corresponding qualification requirements, and units undertaking design, consulting, construction and supervision of new-type storage projects must hold the qualifications prescribed by the state. These rules add no new grades; they make the qualification and the licence a condition of the project itself.

Checklist

1. Entity: registered name, penalties, pledges.
2. Construction qualification: category (electric power), grade, validity, entity match.
3. EPC form: design plus construction qualification, or consortium agreement.
4. Installation licence: grade versus connection voltage; holder.
5. Credit file: project records matched to references; penalties within retention.
6. Project documents: contract, acceptance report, filing receipt, warranty undertaking.

Scope limits

Rules only; no contractor is named or ranked. The national construction-market platform and the enterprise publicity system were not reachable from the session. Design qualification standards and the super-grade standard are not covered. Translations are CNWattHub's.