CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS (Northern California Wildfires) (Details) insurance_claim in Thousands, a in Thousands			3 Months Ended	6 Months Ended
	Jul. 20, 2018 USD ($) lawsuit complaint plaintiff incident_report	Jan. 31, 2018 USD ($) insurance_claim	Jun. 30, 2018 USD ($) wildfire lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2018 USD ($) wildfire lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2017 USD ($)	Jun. 08, 2018 wildfire	May 25, 2018 wildfire	Dec. 31, 2017 USD ($)	Nov. 20, 2017 lawsuit	Oct. 30, 2017 a wildfire fatality structure
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Regulatory assets			$ 4,121,000,000	$ 4,121,000,000				$ 3,793,000,000
Capital expenditures				317,000,000	$ 268,000,000
Regulatory assets, current			194,000,000	194,000,000				615,000,000
Wildfire expense memorandum account
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Regulatory assets			69,000,000	69,000,000				0
Catastrophic Event Memorandum Account
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Regulatory assets			$ 654,000,000	$ 654,000,000				$ 274,000,000
Securities Class Actions Filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of lawsuits filed against company (lawsuit, complaint) | lawsuit			2	2
Nothern California Wild Fire
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number wildfires (wildfire) | wildfire			16	16						21
Number of acres burned (acre) | a										245
Number of structures destroyed (structure) | structure										8,900
Number of fatalities (fatality) | fatality										44
Number of fires in which determination has been reported on | wildfire			16	16		12	4
Number of fires with probable losses (wildfire) | wildfire			14	14
Loss from claims related to wildfire			$ 2,500,000,000
Nothern California Wild Fire | Catastrophic Event Memorandum Account
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Regulatory assets, current			96,000,000	$ 96,000,000
Decrease current regulatory assets			40,000,000
Loss from Catastrophes | Subsequent Event | Complaints Against PG&E Corporation and the Utility in San Francisco Counties Superior Courts
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of lawsuits filed against company (lawsuit, complaint) | complaint	270
Number of plaintiffs in lawsuit (plaintiff) | plaintiff	2,900
Loss from Catastrophes | Subsequent Event | Lawsuits Against PG&E Corporation and the Utility in the Sonoma, Napa and San Francisco Counties Superior Courts, Classified As Class Actions
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of lawsuits filed against company (lawsuit, complaint) | lawsuit	6
Loss from Catastrophes | Subsequent Event | Subrogation Complaints Against PG&E Corporation and the Utility in San Francisco County Superior Courts
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of lawsuits filed against company (lawsuit, complaint) | complaint	10
Breach of Fiduciary Duties | Derivative Lawsuits Filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of lawsuits filed against company (lawsuit, complaint) | lawsuit									2
Nothern California Wild Fire
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Insurance claims received by insurers (insurance claim) | insurance_claim		45
Total insurance claims received by insurers		$ 11,790,000,000
Statewide insurance claims related to wildfire		$ 10,000,000,000
Liability insurance coverage			840,000,000	840,000,000
Initial self-insured retention per occurrence			10,000,000	10,000,000
Further retention per occurrence			40,000,000	40,000,000
Probable insurance recoveries			$ 375,000,000
Service restoration and repair costs				274,000,000
Capital expenditures				$ 116,000,000
Nothern California Wild Fire | Subsequent Event
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of electric incident reports submitted (incident report) | incident_report	23
Property damage coverage per incident	$ 50,000