Equity Equity Transactions with Noncontrolling Interests (Details) - USD ($)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020	Sep. 30, 2019
Noncontrolling Interest [Line Items]
Payments to Acquire Additional Interest in Subsidiaries	$ 240,000,000	$ 0
Stockholders' Equity, Period Increase (Decrease)	202,000,000
Adjustments to Additional Paid in Capital, Other	88,000,000
Reclassification from AOCI, Current Period, Net of Tax, Attributable to Parent	$ 114,000,000
AES Tiete [Domain]
Noncontrolling Interest [Line Items]
Noncontrolling Interest, Ownership Percentage by Parent	42.90%
AES Gener
Noncontrolling Interest [Line Items]
Sale of Stock, Description of Transaction	5
Sale of Stock, Consideration Received on Transaction	$ 113,000,000
Sale of Stock, Percentage of Ownership after Transaction	38.00%
AES Tiete [Domain]
Noncontrolling Interest [Line Items]
Consolidation, Less than Wholly Owned Subsidiary, Parent Ownership Interest, Changes, Purchase of Interest by Parent	$ 0.185
Payments to Acquire Additional Interest in Subsidiaries	$ 240,000,000

Amount of other increase (decrease) in additional paid in capital (APIC).

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Represents the purchase by the parent of an additional equity interest in a subsidiary during the period, thereby effecting a change in total (consolidated) equity attributable to the parent. The purchase of the additional equity interest represented by this element increases the parent's controlling interest in the subsidiary.

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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.

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No definition available.

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The parent entity's interest in net assets of the subsidiary, expressed as a percentage.

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The cash outflow associated with the purchase of noncontrolling interest during the period.

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Amount after tax of reclassification adjustments of other comprehensive income (loss) attributable to parent.

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Cash received on stock transaction after deduction of issuance costs.

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Description of stock transaction which may include details of the offering (IPO, private placement), a description of the stock sold, percentage of subsidiary's or equity investee's stock sold, a description of the investors and whether the stock was issued in a business combination.

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Percentage of subsidiary's or equity investee's stock owned by parent company after stock transaction.

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The increase (decrease) in stockholders' equity during the period.

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