In a thermal power plant in Northwest China, effluent from a local sewage treatment plant is used as circulating cooling water to realize the reuse of recycled water, but the increase of phosphorus content in the circulating cooling process will increase the burden of subsequent treatment process due to the enrichment. Therefore, this experiment explores the phosphorus removal characteristics of single-stage aerobic SBR biological phosphorus removal process for circulating cooling water. The phosphorus removal effect of simulated circulating cooling water and actual wastewater was discussed by adjusting the CODCr concentration, pH value of influent water and sludge residence time when nitrate nitrogen was used as nitrogen source. The results show that when glucose is a single carbon source, reaction temperature is 25 °C, CODCr is 200 mg·L−1, pH is 7.5, and sludge residence time is 10d, the average removal rate of TP in simulated wastewater by single-stage aerobic SBR reactor is about 90%, and effluent TP is less than 0.2 mg·L−1. When the actual circulating cooling water of the power plant is treated, when the influent TP is 1.85 mg·L−1, the average removal rate of TP by the reactor is about 75%, and the effluent TP is <0.46 mg·L−1, which meets the phosphorus reduction requirements of the enterprise for the effluent TP < 0.5 mg·L−1 and reduces the burden of the subsequent treatment process.