A methodology is presented to calculate the TCC (total combined cost) of water sourcing, water treatment and condenser fouling in the recirculating cooling systems of thermoelectric power plants. The methodology is employed to evaluate the economic viability of using treated MWW (municipal wastewater) to replace the use of freshwater as makeup water to power plant cooling systems. Cost analyses are presented for a reference power plant and five different tertiary treatment scenarios to reduce the scaling tendencies of MWW. Results indicate that a 550 MW sub-critical coal fired power plant with a makeup water requirement of 29.3 ML/day has a TCC of $3.0-3.2 million/yr associated with the use of treated MWW for cooling. (All costs USD (United States dollars) 2009). This translates to a freshwater conservation cost of $0.29/kL, which is considerably lower than that of dry air cooling technology, $1.5/kL, as well as the 2020 conservation cost target set by the U.S. Department of Energy, $0.74/kL. Results also show that if the available price of freshwater exceeds that of secondary-treated MWW by more than $0.13-0.14/kL, it can be economically advantageous to purchase secondary MWW and treat it for utilization in the recirculating cooling system of a thermoelectric power plant. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.