Financing Receivables (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	9 Months Ended														1 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014 agreement	Dec. 31, 2013	Sep. 30, 2014 Argentina [Member]		Dec. 31, 2013 Argentina [Member]		Sep. 30, 2014 Argentina [Member] Excluded From Financing Receivables [Member]	Dec. 31, 2013 Argentina [Member] Excluded From Financing Receivables [Member]	Sep. 30, 2014 Argentina [Member] Excluded From Financing Receivables - FONINVEMEM Agreements [Member]	Sep. 30, 2014 Argentina [Member] Resolution 95 Trust Agreement [Member]	Sep. 30, 2014 Dominican Republic [Member]	Dec. 31, 2013 Dominican Republic [Member]	Sep. 30, 2014 Brazil [Member]	Dec. 31, 2013 Brazil [Member]	Mar. 31, 2014 AES Argentina [Member]
Financing Receivable Recorded Investment [Line Items]
Financing receivable	$ 143	$ 184	$ 131	[1]	$ 164	[1]					$ 1	$ 2	$ 11	$ 18
Financing Receivable, Gross			234		286
Noncurrent receivables							103	122	76	27
Derivative Assets, Gross	$ 192	$ 240					$ 102	$ 97
Planned investment in new energy capacity, ownership percentage															100.00%
Number of Foninvemem Agreements	3
Foninvemem Agreement, collection period	10 years
Number of Foninvemem Agreements with active collections	2

[1] Total receivables with the Argentine government were $234 million and $286 million, respectively, as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013. The amounts presented in the table above exclude noncurrent receivables of $103 million and $122 million, respectively, as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, which have not been converted into financing receivables and do not have contractual maturities of greater than one year. Of the $103 million, approximately $76 million is expected to be contributed to a FONINVEMEM Agreement and approximately $27 million is expected to be contributed to a trust to be set up by the Argentine government as required by Resolution 95. Also, excludes the foreign currency-related embedded derivative assets associated with the financing receivables which had a fair value of $102 million and $97 million, respectively, as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013.