Endurance time method is a dynamic elastoplastic anti-earthquake analysis method, the key of which is the synthesis of Endurance time accelerograms. In this paper, four time-history acceleration curves of seismic resistance were synthesized based on the response spectra of Chinese seismic design code. Taking a hydropower station as an example, seven incremental dynamic analyses and four nonlinear analysis were performed. Comparison of the maximum interstory drift ratio and maximum relative displacements at the vertexes of upstream under different seismic intensities, the relative peak ground displacement and peak acceleration of typical joints of hydropower plant under design earthquake were compared. The results showed that endurance time method can effectively predict the seismic response of hydropower plant under different magnitude earthquakes. the result was within the envelope value of the incremental dynamic analysis result. In addition, Endurance time method can effectively evaluate the seismic response of the plant structure under the design earthquake within a certain allowable range. Compared with incremental dynamic analysis, the Endurance time method avoids multiple amplitude modulation calculation and greatly improves the calculation efficiency.