More juice: Power provider Cleco Corp. says it expects to bring a new generating unit online today at its Teche Power Station at Baldwin. Teche Unit 4 is a 35-megawatt unit. Cleco’s regulated power utility, Cleco Power, says the unit will serve as a startup unit in the event of a total system shutdown. The unit also will provide additional electricity during times of peak demand. Pineville-based Cleco says the unit cost about $31 million.
Work at lowest level since October 1999: Builders started work on fewer homes, apartments and government projects in February, pushing construction activity down to the lowest level in more than a decade. Construction spending tumbled for a third straight month, dropping 1.4% in February, the Commerce Department says. The weakness pushed total activity down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $760.6 billion, the smallest total since October 1999. That was below the previous recession low set back in August. Activity at the February level is about half the $1.5 trillion pace that economists believe would signal a healthy construction sector. They think it could take up to four years for construction to fully recover from the bursting of a housing bubble that pushed the country into a deep recession.
