Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, Risk Management (Details) - MMBTU	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Cleco Power [Member] \| Natural Gas Derivative [Member]
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosures [Line Items]
Number of open natural gas positions	0	0

The number of derivative instruments of a particular group held by the entity.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 815
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1B
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84234895&loc=SL5580258-113959

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 815
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1A
-Subparagraph (d)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84234895&loc=SL5579245-113959

Name:	us-gaap_DerivativeNumberOfInstrumentsHeld
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant