Storm Restoration (Details) customer in Thousands, $ in Thousands	1 Months Ended		2 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2021 USD ($)	Feb. 28, 2021 USD ($)	Oct. 28, 2020 USD ($) hurricane	Mar. 31, 2021 USD ($)	Mar. 29, 2021 USD ($)	Feb. 22, 2021	Feb. 17, 2021 customer	Feb. 14, 2021 customer	Dec. 31, 2020 USD ($)
Hurricanes
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Capitalization percentage			63.00%
Capitalized storm restoration costs			$ 150,800
Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Capitalization percentage				80.00%
Capitalized storm restoration costs	$ 8,300			$ 8,300
CLECO POWER
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Regulatory assets	518,465			518,465					$ 456,034
CLECO POWER | Letters of Credit
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Incremental collateral posted		$ 25,000
CLECO POWER | Hurricane Laura, Delta and Zeta
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Regulatory assets	75,400			75,400
CLECO POWER | Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Regulatory assets	1,938			$ 1,938					$ 0
CLECO POWER | Hurricanes
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Number of hurricanes | hurricane			3
Estimate of storm restoration costs			$ 240,700
CLECO POWER | Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Estimate of storm restoration costs		10,200
Capitalized storm restoration costs					$ 50,000
Fuel and purchased power costs		55,000
CLECO POWER | Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola | Letters of Credit
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Incremental collateral posted		25,000
Collateral returned	24,900
CLECO POWER | Winter Storm Uri
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Number of customers affected with power outage | customer								11
Percentage of customers affected by the hurricane with power restored							100.00%
CLECO POWER | Winter Storm Viola
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Number of customers affected with power outage | customer							43
Percentage of customers affected by the hurricane with power restored						100.00%
Cleco Cajun | Letters of Credit
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Incremental collateral posted		8,800
Cleco Cajun | Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Fuel and purchased power costs		11,200
Cleco Cajun | Deferred storm restoration costs - Winter Storms Uri & Viola | Letters of Credit
Unusual or Infrequent Item, or Both [Line Items]
Incremental collateral posted		$ 8,800
Collateral returned	$ 6,500