Commitments and Contingencies (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended					1 Months Ended					9 Months Ended		3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010	Jul. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010		Sep. 30, 2011 Virginia Power [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member] Depreciaiton Expense [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member] Operations and Maintance Expense [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member] Property Plant and Equipment [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member] Surry And North Anna [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Spent Nuclear Fuel [Member] Millstone Power Station [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Employee Severance [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Employee Severance [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Minimum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Maximum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Third Party and Equity Method Investee [Member]
So2 Emissions Allowances Obtained For Arp And Cair Compliance	$ 57,000,000		$ 57,000,000		$ 57,000,000
Amount of litigation settlement													155,000,000	43,000,000
Receviables For Spent Nuclear Fuel Related Costs									99,000,000
Other receivables	228,000,000		228,000,000			88,000,000	[1]		64,000,000	17,000,000	7,000,000	24,000,000
CAA authorized daily civil penalties for non compliance																	25,000	37,500
Estimated costs to install cooling towers			600,000,000
Amount of expenditures for cooling towers included in planned capital expenditures			100,000,000
Acquisition Cost Of Rggi Allowances	34,000,000
Issued guarantees																			86,000,000
Exposure under guarantees	5,041,000,000		5,041,000,000																54,000,000
Purchased surety bonds	151,000,000		151,000,000
Authorized issuance of standby letters of credit	127,000,000		127,000,000
Other operations and maintance expense relating to severance costs	885,000,000	788,000,000	2,523,000,000	2,709,000,000											17,000,000
Other operations and maintance expense relating to severance costs after tax																11,000,000
Increase In Liability Due To Change In Estimate Of Future Billing Adjustments								$ 35,000,000

[1] Dominion’s Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2010 has been derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements at that date.