In this study, the economic evaluation for imported coals was conducted for power plant based on thermo-dynamical performance analysis. The number of coal types considered was 1,755 imported by five power generation companies in Korea during the 2010-2012. The higher heating value (HHV) of the coals ranged 4,000-6,500 kcal/kg, mostly sub-bituminous. The 1D thermo-dynamical performance modeling was performed for a 500 MWe standard power plant using PROATES code. It was founded that the low rank coals had negative effects on the plant efficiency mainly due to the increased heat loss by moisture, hydrogen and flue gas. Based on the performance analysis, the economic performance of the coals was evaluated. The apparent price of low-rank coals tended to be significantly lower than design coal; for example, the unit price of coal with a HHV of 4,000 kcal/kg was 57% of the reference coal having 6,080 kcal/kg. Considering the negative effects leading to a decrease in the thermal performance, heating value compensation, and increased parasite load, the corrected unit cost for the coal with 4,000 kcal/kg was 90.7% of the reference coal. Overall, the cost saving by imported coals was not high as expected.