Although most thermoelectric power plants are cooled by evaporating water, there has been an increase in the number of dry cooled power plants recently. For example, only 4% of power plant cooling systems in the U.S. are dry cooled, but 13% of cooling systems installed in the last 22 years are dry cooling systems. The trend also appears to be affected by geography and weather, with a significant number of dry cooling systems installed in the northeastern U.S. To investigate these trends, a detailed techno-economic model of a 555 MWe natural gas combined cycle power plant was developed for both dry and wet cooled systems that allow the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) to be calculated using hourly Typical Meteorological Year 3 (TMY3) data. The results of the analysis showed that wet cooled systems generated more power and, as a result, have a lower LCOE. However, dry cooled systems generated more power than wet cooled systems in some locations with cold weather during winter months, and/or mild and humid temperatures in the spring, summer, and fall. These initial findings suggest that the weather patterns can influence the decision of choosing a wet or dry cooled system. Furthermore, there appears to be external factors such as permitting, ecological considerations, and other state regulations that impact the decision to choose which cooling system type is appropriate. The modeling approach is used to estimate these apparent costs associated with selecting a dry cooled system.