This Technical Specification establishes general principles for design assessment of OTEC plants. The goal is to describe the design and assessment requirements of OTEC plants used for stable power generation under various conditions. This electricity may be used for utility supply or production of other energy carriers. The intended audience is developers, engineers, bankers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, finance authorities and regulators. This Technical Specification is applicable to land based (aka “onshore”), shelf mounted (aka “nearshore seabed mounted”) and floating OTEC systems. For land-based systems the scope of this document ends at the main power export cable suitable for connection to the grid. For shelf-mounted and floating systems, the scope of this document normally ends at the main power export cable where it connects to the electrical grid.