## 3 Results and Discussion
### Economic Analysis for the STPP (Wet-Cooled Model) for the Six Potential Sites in India  
The economic results for the wet-cooled STPP are presented in Table 3 The results for all sites show a positive NPV, which is an indication that such a project at any of the sites will be a viable investment. Results from the analysis presented in Figure 8 show that the optimized SM falls in between 1 and 1.8. The construction of such a power plant at the six studied areas can be developed within this range of SM values to help cut down on cost. This is because an increase in the SM increases the total capital cost for the entire plant. The outcome also shows that the LCOE for the wet-cooled STPP is relatively higher than that for the dry-cooled due to the cost associated with the water used. Based on the results, the  
Figure 7: Total electric power output to grid (wet-cooled) for six potential sites. optimum SM for a system located at the Bhopal, Srikakulam, and Erode sites at 8 h TES is 1.8, whereas the Jalandhar and West Medinipur sites optimized at 6 h TES have an optimal SM of 1.6. The Jhansi site had an optimized TES of 6 h, with an SM of 1 at an LCOE of 11.53 USD cents/kWh. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Bhopal** & **Jhansi** & **Jalandhar** & **Srikakulam** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**West**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Erode**} \\ \hline
**Metric** & **Value** & **Value** & **Value** & **Value** & **Value** & **Value** \\ \hline Annual energy (GWh) & 410.740 & 401.175 & 330.133 & 382.817 & 329.713 & 387.021 \\ \hline Capacity factor (\%) & 45.3 & 44.2 & 36.4 & 42.2 & 36.4 & 42.7 \\ \hline Annual water Usage, m\({}^{3}\) & 1,156,174 & 1,147,154 & 967,110 & 1,121,001 & 976,948 & 1,142,278 \\ \hline Power purchase & & & & & & \\ agreement (PPA) (Year 1), cents per kWh & 13.05 & 13 & 14.21 & 13.78 & 14.52 & 14.85 \\ \hline Levelized PPA price (nominal), cents per kWh & 14.77 & 15.37 & 16.00 & 15.18 & 15.17 & 15.43 \\ \hline Levelized PPA price (real), cents per kWh & 12.40 & 12.90 & 13.44 & 12.75 & 12.73 & 12.96 \\ \hline Levelized Cost of & & & & & & \\ Electricity (LCOE) (nominal), cents per kWh & 14.15 & 14.55 & 16.88 & 14.95 & 16.54 & 14.92 \\ \hline Levelized Cost of & & & & & & \\ Electricity (LCOE) (real), cents per kWh & 11.88 & 12.21 & 14.09 & 12.55 & 13.89 & 12.52 \\ \hline Net present value & & & & & & \\ (NPV), USD & 19,464,646 & 25,342,286 & 19,734,204 & 16,915,063 & 15,083,772 & 15,477,209 \\ \hline Internal rate of return & & & & & & \\ (IRR), \% & 25.52 & 25.21 & 25.10 & 25.11 & 25.01 & 25.11 \\ \hline Year investor IRR  achieved & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 & 20 \\ \hline IRR at the end of & & & & & & \\ project, \% & 26.29 & 27.82 & 26.52 & 27.80 & 27.05 & 25.11 \\ \hline Net capital cost, USD & 823,419,968 & 823,360,000 & 823,256,704 & 823,327,040 & 823,273,984 & 823,339,648 \\ \hline Equity, USD & 247,235,472 & 247,217,456 & 247,186,488 & 247,207,568 & 247,191,648 & 247,211,360 \\ \hline Debt, USD & 576,184,512 & 576,142,528 & 576,070,272 & 576,119,488 & 576,082,368 & 576,128,320 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Economic results from the simulation in SAM for the STPP (wet-cooled) plant. analysis looked at the up-front fee in the range of 1-5%. The last sensitivity analysis looked at the effect of SM on the net capital cost (NCC), within a range of 1-5. Figure 9 shows that varying sales tax rates create a significant impact on the LCOE for both the dry and wet-cooled models for the six potential sites. The results indicate that the LCOE of the power plants increases with increasing sales tax. The effect of sales tax on the LCOE of the Jalandhar site is more than that of any of the other selected sites for both models as a result of the relatively less DNI in that enclave. However, Bhopal recorded the lowest LCOE, even with an increase in the sales tax rate for the dry and wet-cooled models.