Electric Customer Credits (Details) (USD $)							12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012 Cleco Power [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Cleco Power [Member]	Feb. 12, 2010 Cleco Power [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 2012 FRP Monitoring Report [Member] Cleco Power [Member]	Jun. 30, 2011 2011 FRP Monitoring Report [Member] Cleco Power [Member]
Target return on equity allowed by FRP (in hundredths)					10.70%
Percentage of retail earnings within range to be returned to customers (in hundredths)					60.00%
Return on equity for customer credit, low range (in hundredths)					11.30%
Return on equity for customer credit, high range (in hundredths)					12.30%
Total customer credits							$ 5,100,000
Provision for rate refund	$ 4,165,000	$ 7,323,000	$ 4,165,000	$ 7,323,000		$ 1,700,000