DOCUMENT AND ENTITY INFORMATION - shares	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2017	May 03, 2017
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	Sempra Energy
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Mar. 31, 2017
Amendment Flag	false
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2017
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Shares Outstanding		250,831,410
Entity Central Index Key	0001032208
Trading Symbol	SRE