The Walter C. Beckjord Generating Station was a 1.43-gigawatt (1,433 MW), dual-fuel power generating station located near

New Richmond, Ohio New Richmond, also known as New Richmond on the Ohio, is a village in Ohio and Pierce townships in Clermont County, Ohio, United States, founded in 1814, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,727 at the 2020 census. Geography New Rich ...

, 22 miles east of

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. The plant began operation in 1952 and was decommissioned in 2014. It was jointly owned by

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company ranked as the 141st largest company in the United States in 2024 – its highest-ever placement on the ...

American Electric Power American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP), (railcar reporting mark: AEPX) is an American domestic electric utility company in the United States. It is one of the largest electric utility companies in the country, with more than five mi ...

(AEP), and

Dayton Power & Light DPL Inc. (aka DP&L Inc.) is a subsidiary of AES Corporation. Through its subsidiary AES Ohio (formerly The Dayton Power and Light Company, and DPL Energy Resources), DP&L sells to, and generates electricity for, a customer base of over 500,000 pe ...

(DP&L).

Background

Of the two Beckjord power plants, one was coal-fired (Units 1–6) and the other was oil-fired (Units GT1–GT4). It was originally built by Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company (CG&E), which was bought by Duke Energy in 2006. The plant is named after Walter C. Beckjord, the chairman of CG&E from 1957 to 1962. CG&E installed new

electrostatic precipitator An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filterless device that removes fine particles, such as dust and smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit. In c ...

s at Beckjord in the 1970s to reduce pollution mandated by the State of Ohio.

Closure and decommissioning

In July 2011, Duke Energy announced that Beckjord would shut down in January 2015 because of tightening environmental regulations from the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

(EPA) outweighed the benefits of retrofitting the plant. The shut down was accelerated to November 2014 after an open valve caused an oil spill into the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

the previous August. Duke Energy pleaded guilty in federal court in 2016 for spilling 9,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Ohio River. The company was fined $1 million for the spill. In 2015, Duke Energy installed a battery-based energy storage system at the site for the purpose of regulating

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...

in the electric grid. As a part of the decommissioning process, Duke Energy terminated their lease with the New Richmond Soccer Association who played soccer matches adjacent to Beckjord. Duke Energy and its co-owners, AEP and DP&L, agreed to sell Beckjord and adjacent lands to Commercial Liability Partners for an undisclosed amount in February 2018. Commercial Liability Partners intends to repurpose the

brownfield Brownfield is previously-developed land that has been abandoned or underused, and which may carry pollution, or a risk of pollution, from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and l ...

s for redevelopment. In April 2023, local officials raised alarms after nearly 300 acres of the site, nearly one third, was purchased by a neighboring farmer.

References

{{Reflist Energy infrastructure completed in 1952 Energy infrastructure completed in 1953 Energy infrastructure completed in 1954 Energy infrastructure completed in 1958 Energy infrastructure completed in 1962 Energy infrastructure completed in 1969 Energy infrastructure completed in 1972 Buildings and structures in Clermont County, Ohio Former coal-fired power stations in Ohio Former oil-fired power stations in the United States Duke Energy American Electric Power AES Corporation 1952 establishments in Ohio 2014 disestablishments in Ohio

Background

Closure and decommissioning

See also

References