Models for the height of the pedestal at the edge of H-mode plasmas (Onjun T et al 2002 Phys. Plasmas9 5018) are used together with the Multi-Mode core transport model (Bateman G et al 1998 Phys. Plasmas5 1793) in the BALDUR integrated predictive modelling code to predict the performance of the ITER (Aymar A et al 2002 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion44 519), FIRE (Meade D M et al 2001 Fusion Technol.39 336), and IGNITOR (Coppi B et al 2001 Nucl. Fusion41 1253) fusion reactor designs. The simulation protocol used in this paper is tested by comparing predicted temperature and density profiles against experimental data from 33 H-mode discharges in the JET (Rebut P H et al 1985 Nucl. Fusion25 1011) and DIII-D (Luxon J L et al 1985 Fusion Technol.8 441) tokamaks. The sensitivities of the predictions are evaluated for the burning plasma experimental designs by using variations of the pedestal temperature model that are one standard deviation above and below the standard model. Simulations of the fusion reactor designs are carried out for scans in which the plasma density and auxiliary heating power are varied.