Regulatory Assets and Liabilities, Additional Disclosures (Details) (Cleco Power [Member], USD $)			1 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended			9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	1 Months Ended			3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013	Mar. 31, 2012 Evangeline [Member] Evangeline Power Purchase Agreement [Member] MW	Mar. 31, 2014 Surcredits, net	Sep. 30, 2014 Surcredits, net	Dec. 31, 2013 Surcredits, net	Sep. 30, 2014 AMI deferred revenue requirement	Dec. 31, 2013 AMI deferred revenue requirement	Sep. 30, 2014 Production O&M expenses	Dec. 31, 2013 Production O&M expenses	Sep. 30, 2014 MISO integration costs	Dec. 31, 2013 MISO integration costs	Sep. 30, 2014 Acquisition/ transaction costs [Member]	Dec. 31, 2013 Acquisition/ transaction costs [Member]	Sep. 30, 2014 Corporate franchise tax	Dec. 31, 2013 Corporate franchise tax	Sep. 30, 2014 Acadia FRP true-up	Jun. 30, 2014 Acadia FRP true-up	Dec. 31, 2013 Acadia FRP true-up	Sep. 30, 2014 Other	Dec. 31, 2013 Other	Sep. 30, 2014 Fuel and purchased power	Sep. 30, 2014 Fuel and purchased power FTRs [Member]	Jun. 18, 2014 Maximum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2009 Maximum [Member]	Feb. 28, 2011 Maximum [Member] AMI deferred revenue requirement	Sep. 30, 2014 Maximum [Member] Production O&M expenses	Sep. 30, 2014 Louisiana Public Service Commission [Member] Fuel and purchased power	Apr. 15, 2014 State and Local Jurisdiction [Member] Corporate franchise tax	Sep. 30, 2014 Coughlin transaction costs Acquisition/ transaction costs [Member]	Dec. 31, 2013 Coughlin transaction costs Acquisition/ transaction costs [Member]	Jun. 30, 2014 FRP extension [Member] Acadia FRP true-up
Schedule of Regulatory Assets and Liabilities, Net [Line Items]
Withdrawal from Restricted Storm Reserve				$ 4,000,000
Long-term Power Purchase Agreement, Term of Contract			3 years
Capacity and energy provided by a power purchase agreement (in MW)			730
Regulatory Assets	247,044,000	255,652,000			14,493,000	16,738,000	5,999,000	4,682,000	7,755,000	8,459,000	3,509,000	0	2,680,000	2,760,000	2,274,000	0	754,000	800,000	0	654,000	0	40,217,000				20,000,000	23,000,000		3,700,000	1,068,000	0
Regulatory Noncurrent Asset, Amortization Period					P4Y		P11Y		P3Y		P4Y									P3Y										P35Y
Production O&M expenses (deferral threshold)																								45,000,000	25,600,000
Regulatory Current Liability, Amortization Period															P0Y12M		P0Y12M
Estimated Revenue Requirement																																58,300,000
Percentage of total fuel cost regulated by LPSC (in hundredths)																												76.00%
Increase (decrease) in under/over recovered costs																						44,100,000
Increase in fuel and purchased power costs																						25,900,000
Increase due to the settlement of previously open FTR positions and a mark-to-market loss on current open FTR positions																							$ 18,200,000