Cleco announced on Friday several initiatives to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus and ensure power reliability for its customers.
"We want to ensure we're being socially responsible and doing our part to contain the spread of the coronavirus and to protect our customers, contractors, employees and the general public," said Bill Fontenot, president and CEO of Cleco. "As the number of cases in Louisiana have continued to increase in a relatively short period of time, our Cleco Pandemic Action Team is implementing several initiatives to support our efforts to maintain our operations and keep the lights on for our customers during this pandemic."
Cleco is enforcing the following preventative measures effective immediately and until further notice to help protect employees and the community:
· Temporarily closing its 13 customer service offices across the state
· Temporarily suspending customer service disconnects and late fees
· Allowing some personnel to work from home while critical positions such as line mechanics and power plant workers continue working
· Prohibiting all commercial air travel for Cleco business
· Restricting consultants or contractors who are not critical to company operations from traveling to or working from Cleco office locations
· Practicing social distancing by keeping three to six feet away from other employees, customers and contractors
· Canceling large gatherings and face-to-face meetings
"We understand our obligation to meet our customers' power needs, and these measures support our efforts to provide safe, reliable power," said Fontenot. "Currently, we have no reported or any confirmed coronavirus cases within Cleco."
Cleco will evaluate the above measures and make necessary adjustments as more information becomes available from local, state, and federal agencies.
Cleco's customer call center will still be available at 1-800-622-6537 to assist customers with emergencies and regular business from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Also on Friday, Cleco announced it would temporarily suspend service disconnects and late fees on customer accounts effective immediately until further notice. Read more about that HERE.
