Beckjord Power Station
power plant located in Clermont County, Ohio
The Walter C. Beckjord Generating Station was a 1.43-gigawatt (1,433 MW), dual-fuel power generating station located near New Richmond, Ohio, 22 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio. The plant began operation in 1952 and was decommissioned in 2014. It was jointly owned by Duke Energy, American Electric Power (AEP), and Dayton Power & Light (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 precipitators 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 (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 previous August. Duke Energy pleaded guilty in federal court in 2016 for spilling 9,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Ohio River.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beckjord Power Station” as power plant located in Clermont County, Ohio. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as power plant located in Clermont County, Ohio. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4878734. Authority coordinates are 38.992, -84.297. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 2014, 2006 and 1957.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Beckjord Power Station”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Beckjord Power Station primary sources, Beckjord Power Station archive and Beckjord research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Beckjord Power Station”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Beckjord Power Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.