Related Party Transactions Related Party Transactions PacifiCorp (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017	Sep. 30, 2016
Related Party Transaction [Line Items]
Related party transaction, cash received for income taxes, net	$ 659	$ 860
PacifiCorp [Member] \| BHE [Member]
Related Party Transaction [Line Items]
Related party transaction, cash received for income taxes, net	$ 205	$ 61

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.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration