Cleco Holdings

Cleco is an electric utility operating in Louisiana. Its history traces to Louisiana Ice & Utilities, which was reorganized in 1935 by engineer and entrepreneur Floyd Wilson Woodcock into Louisiana Ice & Electric Company, described as today's Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC. The company reports that it is the only electric utility company to meet Louisiana's reliability standards for each of the last 26 years, and in 2024 kept the lights on for customers more than 99.9% of the time. Cleco states it will serve power to a new data center being developed by Applied Digital in Rapides Parish, and it invests in renewable projects such as solar and supports EV infrastructure expansion across Louisiana.

Cleco's history traces to Louisiana Ice & Utilities. In 1935, after the Great Depression, engineer and entrepreneur Floyd Wilson Woodcock reorganized Louisiana Ice & Utilities into Louisiana Ice & Electric Company, which the company describes as today's Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC. By 1938, the Louisiana Ice & Electric system had a transmission backbone through Rapides Parish, and the company had core ice and cold storage operations in Alexandria, Bunkie and Baton Rouge; the Baton Rouge plant was sold in 1938. In 1939, Rea station was built as the first major generating facility of Louisiana Ice & Electric Company and one of the largest natural-gas-burning plants in the country. By 1945, energy sales to residential and commercial customers had grown to 45,000,000 kilowatt hours annually.

1. 1Cleco Energizing Your Tomorrowcleco.com
2. 2History | Clecocleco.com
3. 3Corporate Sustainability | Clecocleco.com
4. 4People | Clecocleco.com