COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Purchase Commitments (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]

Schedule of Change in Asset Retirement Obligation [Table Text Block]

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending aggregate carrying amount of asset retirement obligations is as follows: 

Millions of dollars	2012			2011
Beginning balance	$	473		$	497
Liabilities incurred	—			1
Liabilities settled	(5		)	(4		)
Accretion expense	24			23
Revisions in estimated cash flows	69			(44		)
Ending Balance	$	561		$	473

Purchase Commitment, Excluding Long-term Commitment [Table Text Block]

	Millions of dollars
2013	$	1,030
2014	717
2015	530
2016	268
2017	1,111
Thereafter	1,142
Total	$	4,798

SCE&G

Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]

Schedule of Change in Asset Retirement Obligation [Table Text Block]

follows:

Millions of dollars	2012			2011
Beginning balance	$	450		$	478
Liabilities incurred	—			—
Liabilities settled	(5		)	(4		)
Accretion expense	23			23
Revisions in estimated cash flows	67			(47		)
Ending Balance	$	535		$	450

Purchase Commitment, Excluding Long-term Commitment [Table Text Block]

Future payments under such purchase commitments are as follows:

	Millions of dollars
2013	$	952
2014	645
2015	460
2016	227
2017	1,076
Thereafter	1,033
Total	$	4,393