DOCUMENT AND ENTITY INFORMATION - shares	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2015	Oct. 28, 2015
Document and Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	Sempra Energy
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2015
Amendment Flag	false
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2015
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Shares Outstanding		248,210,449
Entity Central Index Key	0001032208
Trading Symbol	SRE