Earnings Per Share (Details) (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012	Mar. 31, 2011
Income (Numerator)
Income from continuing operations after income taxes attributable to PPL	$ 541	$ 398
Less amounts allocated to participating securities	3	2
Income from continuing operations after income taxes available to PPL common shareowners	538	396
Income (loss) from discontinued operations (net of income taxes) available to PPL	0	3
Net income attributable to PPL	541	401
Less amounts allocated to participating securities	3	2
Net income available to PPL common shareowners	$ 538	$ 399
Shares of Common Stock (Denominator)
Weighted-average shares - Basic EPS (in shares)	579,041,000	484,138,000
Add incremental non-participating securities:
Stock options and performance units (in shares)	486,000	207,000
Weighted-average shares - Diluted EPS (in shares)	579,527,000	484,345,000
Basic EPS - Available to PPL common shareowners:
Income from continuing operations after income taxes (in dollars per share)	$ 0.93	$ 0.82
Net Income (in dollars per share)	$ 0.93	$ 0.82
Diluted EPS - Available to PPL common shareowners:
Income from continuing operations after income taxes (in dollars per share)	$ 0.93	$ 0.82
Net Income (in dollars per share)	$ 0.93	$ 0.82
Shares Issued (Numeric) [Abstract]
Common stock issued under stock-based compensation plans (in shares)	276,582
Common stock issued under ESOP (in shares)	279,945
Common stock issued under DRIP (in shares)	558,019
Stock Options [Member]
Antidilutive Securities Excluded from Computation of Earnings Per Share [Line Items]
Shares excluded from the computations of diluted EPS	5,682,000	6,614,000
Performance Units [Member]
Antidilutive Securities Excluded from Computation of Earnings Per Share [Line Items]
Shares excluded from the computations of diluted EPS	195,000	6,000
Purchase Contacts 2011 [Member]
Potential Dilutive Impact (Numeric) [Abstract]
Level of average VWAP that causes the Purchase Contract component of Equity Units to be dilutive (in dollars per share)	$ 30.99
Purchase Contracts 2010 [Member]
Potential Dilutive Impact (Numeric) [Abstract]
Level of average VWAP that causes the Purchase Contract component of Equity Units to be dilutive (in dollars per share)	$ 28.80
Combined Purchase Contracts [Member]
Potential Dilutive Impact (Numeric) [Abstract]
Maximum number of shares of PPL common stock to be issued to settle the Purchase Contract component of the Equity Units	99,743,870
Maximum number of shares of PPL common stock to be issued to settle the standard provision of the Purchase Contract component of the Equity Units	86,552,565
Maximum number of shares of PPL common stock to be issued to settle the make whole provisions of the Purchase Contract component of the Equity Units	13,191,305