Commitments And Contingencies (Third-Party Power Purchases) (Details) (Pacific Gas And Electric Company [Member], USD $) In Millions	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010
Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]
Payments made by the Utility under power purchase agreements amounted to	$ 1,845	$ 1,791
Power Purchase Agreement Payments [Member]
Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]
2011	539
2012	2,316
2013	2,969
2014	3,333
2015	3,562
Thereafter	55,242
Total	$ 67,961

Power purchase agreement payments

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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The carrying amount of the long-term purchase obligation as of the balance sheet date, which equals the sum of all payments due.

+ References

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- Definition

The aggregate remaining amount of payments due after the fifth year after the balance sheet date to extinguish a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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-LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy.

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The aggregate amount of payments due in the fifth year after the balance sheet date to reduce a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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The aggregate amount of payments due in the fourth year after the balance sheet date to reduce a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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The aggregate amount of payments due in the second year after the balance sheet date to reduce a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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The aggregate amount of payments due in the third year after the balance sheet date to reduce a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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The aggregate amount of payments due in the first year after the balance sheet date to reduce a recorded unconditional purchase obligation.

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