Abstract Water desalination can offer a potential solution for water scarcity. Additionally, desalination technologies that mainly consume electric energy, such as reverse osmosis, can expand the market for electric utilities. Despite such benefits, the main question around desalination remains to be its economic competitiveness. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of water desalination, this paper calculates two well-known engineering economic metrics: net present value (NPV) and levelized cost of water (LCOW), as applied to large-scale water desalination loads. The paper offers insights on the economic competitiveness of water desalination, compared to its alternatives, i.e., fresh surface and groundwater. The use of NPV is viewed as a planning tool, and LCOW is viewed as an operations tool, which has some significance in project planning. The paper discusses the nexus between operations and planning and offers some contemporary insight into the deployment of desalination worldwide. Additionally, the paper offers analysis on the economic benefits of integrating water desalination load in power systems, both from the point of view of desalination plant owners and electric utilities.

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海水淡化的成本效益分析：电力市场机遇

摘要 海水淡化可以为水资源短缺提供潜在的解决方案。此外，反渗透等主要消耗电能的海水淡化技术可以扩大电力公用事业的市场。尽管有这些好处，关于海水淡化的主要问题仍然是其经济竞争力。为了评估海水淡化的成本效益，本文计算了两个众所周知的工程经济指标：净现值 (NPV) 和水的平准化成本 (LCOW)，适用于大规模海水淡化负荷。该论文提供了有关海水淡化与其替代品（即新鲜地表水和地下水）相比的经济竞争力的见解。NPV的使用被视为一种规划工具，而LCOW被视为一种运营工具，在项目规划中具有一定的意义。本文讨论了运营和规划之间的关系，并提供了一些对全球海水淡化部署的当代见解。此外，本文从海水淡化厂所有者和电力公司的角度分析了在电力系统中整合海水淡化负荷的经济效益。