Newly Adopted Accounting Standards	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract]
Newly Adopted Accounting Standards	NEWLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS 2009 RECOGNITION AND PRESENTATION OF OTHER-THAN-TEMPORARY IMPAIRMENTS The FASB amended its guidance for the recognition and presentation of other-than-temporary impairments, which Dominion and Virginia Power adopted effective April 1, 2009. The recognition provisions of this guidance apply only to debt securities classified as available-for-sale or held-to-maturity, while the presentation and disclosure requirements apply to both debt and equity securities. Prior to the adoption of this guidance, as described in Note 2, the Companies considered all debt securities held by their nuclear decommissioning trusts with market values below their cost bases to be other-than-temporarily impaired as they did not have the ability to ensure the investments were held through the anticipated recovery period. Upon the adoption of this guidance for debt investments held at April 1, 2009, Dominion recorded a $20 million ($12 million after-tax) and Virginia Power recorded a $3 million ($2 million after-tax) cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle to reclassify the non-credit related portion of previously recognized other-than-temporary impairments from retained earnings to AOCI, reflecting the fixed-income investment managers' intent and ability to hold the debt securities until recovery of their fair values up to their cost bases. SEC FINAL RULE, MODERNIZATION OF OIL AND GAS REPORTING Effective December 31, 2009, Dominion adopted the SEC Final Rule, Modernization of Oil and Gas Reporting, which revised the existing Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X reporting requirements. Under the new requirements, the ceiling test is calculated using an average price based on the prior 12-month period rather than period-end prices. Due to the April 2010 sale of substantially all of its Appalachian E&P operations, Dominion no longer has any significant gas and oil properties subject to the ceiling test calculation.

NEWLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

2009

RECOGNITION AND PRESENTATION OF OTHER-THAN-TEMPORARY IMPAIRMENTS

The FASB amended its guidance for the recognition and presentation of other-than-temporary impairments, which Dominion and Virginia Power adopted effective April 1, 2009. The recognition provisions of this guidance apply only to debt securities classified as available-for-sale or held-to-maturity, while the presentation and disclosure requirements apply to both debt and equity securities. Prior to the adoption of this guidance, as described in Note 2, the Companies considered all debt securities held by their nuclear decommissioning trusts with market values below their cost bases to be other-than-temporarily impaired as they did not have the ability to ensure the investments were held through the anticipated recovery period.

Upon the adoption of this guidance for debt investments held at April 1, 2009, Dominion recorded a $20 million ($12 million after-tax) and Virginia Power recorded a $3 million ($2 million after-tax) cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle to reclassify the non-credit related portion of previously recognized other-than-temporary impairments from retained earnings to AOCI, reflecting the fixed-income investment managers' intent and ability to hold the debt securities until recovery of their fair values up to their cost bases.

SEC FINAL RULE, MODERNIZATION OF OIL AND GAS REPORTING

Effective December 31, 2009, Dominion adopted the SEC Final Rule, Modernization of Oil and Gas Reporting, which revised the existing Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X reporting requirements. Under the new requirements, the ceiling test is calculated using an average price based on the prior 12-month period rather than period-end prices. Due to the April 2010 sale of substantially all of its Appalachian E&P operations, Dominion no longer has any significant gas and oil properties subject to the ceiling test calculation.