Regulatory Assets and Liabilities, Additional Disclosures (Details) (USD $)					1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012 Cleco Power [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Cleco Power [Member]	Feb. 28, 2006 Cleco Power [Member] Construction carrying costs - liability [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Cleco Power [Member] Construction carrying costs - liability [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Cleco Power [Member] Biomass costs [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Treasury Rate Locks [Member] Cleco Power [Member] Financing costs [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Treasury Rate Locks [Member] Cleco Power [Member] Financing costs [Member]
Schedule of Regulatory Assets and Liabilities, Net [Line Items]
Original recovery period (in years)							5 years	30 years
Revised recovery period (in years)						4 years
Deferred Construction Carrying Costs [Abstract]
Percentage of jurisdictional portion of construction carrying costs to be collected from customers (in hundredths)					75.00%
Amount of construction carrying costs returned to customers						$ 158,200,000
Settlement amount									26,800,000
Number of treasury rate locks entered into									2
Hedge ineffectivness									6,900,000
Regulatory Liabilities	$ 8,251,000	$ 33,019,000	$ 8,251,000	$ 33,019,000		$ 8,300,000