Business Segments (Narrative) (Details) mi² in Thousands, customer in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2016 mi² segment customer power_plant
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Number of operating segments \| segment	2
THE DAYTON POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY [Member]
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Number of coal fired power plants \| power_plant	5
Approximate number of retail customers \| customer	518
Service area, square miles \| mi²	6

Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_NumberOfOperatingSegments
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration