Acquisitions and Dispositions (Details)	1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended
	Feb. 09, 2012 USD ($) mw	Feb. 09, 2012 EUR (€)	Mar. 31, 2012 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 DPL Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 DPL Acquisition [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Ohio Valley Electric Corporation [Member]
Acquisitions [Line Items]
Business Acquisition, Cost of Acquired Entity, Purchase Price					$ 3,500,000,000
Business Acquisition, Percentage of Voting Interests Acquired						100.00%	4.90%
Business Acquisition, Pro Forma Information [Abstract]
Electric Utility Revenue			4,740,000,000	4,156,000,000	431,000,000
Net Income Loss Attributable To The AES Corporation			341,000,000	224,000,000	22,000,000
Business Acquisition, Pro Forma Revenue			4,740,000,000	4,623,000,000
Business Acquisition, Pro Forma Net Income (Loss)			351,000,000	220,000,000
Business Acquisition Pro Forma Adjustments Net Of Tax Total			10,000,000	48,000,000
Dispositions
Cartagena ownership interest sold	80.00%	80.00%
Cartagena generation capacity (MW)	1,199	1,199
Cartagena ownership interest prior to sale	70.81%	70.81%
Proceeds from sale of ownership interest in Cartagena	229,000,000	172,000,000
Acquirer's option to purchase additional ownership interest in Cartagena	20.00%	20.00%
Price to exercise option to purchase remaining interest of Cartagena	37,000,000	28,000,000
Amount recovered by Cartagena from GDF	95,000,000	71,000,000
Proceeds received on the settlement with GDF	38,000,000	28,000,000
Gain on sale of Cartagena	178,000,000
Deferred gain on sale of Cartagena	$ 9,000,000