Cleco Advances Five-Year Grid Resiliency Program Across Louisiana

Cleco is advancing a five-year grid resiliency program across Louisiana that includes more than 550 projects designed to strengthen electric infrastructure and improve system performance during severe weather events.

According to the utility, the program represents its largest grid resiliency investment to date. Planned work includes replacing electric equipment, undergrounding selected portions of the distribution system, reinforcing utility poles and elevating substations located in flood-prone areas.

A portion of the projects will focus on infrastructure serving critical facilities, including hospitals and emergency services.

Current work includes assessments of more than 700 utility poles for maintenance or replacement in Covington, Eunice, Jeanerette, Lacombe, Madisonville, New Iberia, Pineville and Slidell.

Cleco said the projects are intended to strengthen system resilience, reduce storm-related costs, and support improved outage response and restoration efforts following major weather events.

The utility also noted that it has met or exceeded reliability standards established by the Louisiana Public Service Commission for the past 27 years.