Cleco receives award for Hurricane Barry response

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) presented Cleco Power with the association’s “Emergency Recovery Award” for its outstanding power restoration efforts after Hurricane Barry hit Louisiana in July.
The Emergency Recovery Award is given to select EEI member companies to recognize their extraordinary efforts to restore power to customers after service disruptions caused by severe weather conditions or other natural events. The winners are chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process.
Cleco Power received the award on Jan. 8 during EEI’s Winter Board and Chief Executives Meeting in Tucson, Ariz.
“This is Cleco’s 12th storm award since the program began in 1998,” said Cleco President and CEO Bill Fontenot. “This award recognizes all of our employees who work on the lines and behind the lines. It was truly a team effort, and I am proud to accept the award on their behalf.”
On July 13, Hurricane Barry made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane, resulting in 98,420 outages in Cleco Power’s service territory.
Due to their work, Cleco and contractor crews restored service to 100% of customers within four days after the storm, dedicating 161,000 work-hours to the recovery.
“Cleco Power’s work to restore service safely and quickly to customers, often in dangerous conditions, makes them deserving of this award,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn.
“Their efforts exemplify the high standards our industry seeks to uphold, and I applaud their commitment to their customers.”
Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC is a regional energy holding company that conducts its business operations through its subsidiaries, Cleco Power LLC and Cleco Cajun LLC.
Cleco Power is a regulated electric public utility company that owns 10 generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,357 megawatts and serves approximately 290,000 customers in Louisiana through its retail business and supplies wholesale power in Louisiana and Mississippi. Cleco Cajun is an unregulated utility company that owns eight generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,555 megawatts.
with contracts serving nine Louisiana cooperatives, five wholesale municipal customers and one electric utility. For more information about Cleco, visit us at www.cleco.com.
EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for more than 220 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 65 international electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members