1.0.0.3 false GENERAL AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES false 1 $ false false iso4217_USD Standard http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217 USD iso4217 0 iso4217_USD_per_shares Divide http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217 USD iso4217 http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance shares 0 5 GENERAL AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES 3 us-gaap_OrganizationConsolidationAndPresentationOfFinancialStatementsDisclosureTextBlock us-gaap true na duration string No definition available. false false false false false false false false false 1 false false 0 0 <div> 1. GENERAL AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES The AES Corporation is a holding company (the “Parent Company”) that through its subsidiaries and affiliates, (collectively, “AES” or “the Company”) operates a geographically diversified portfolio of electricity generation and distribution businesses. PRINCIPLES OF CONSOLIDATION—The Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company include the accounts of The AES Corporation, its subsidiaries and controlled affiliates, and variable interest entities (“VIEs”) of which the Company is the primary beneficiary. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation. A VIE is an entity (a) that has a total equity investment at risk that is not sufficient to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support provided by any parties or (b) where the group of equity holders does not have (i) the ability to make significant decisions about the entity’s activities, (ii) the obligation to absorb the entity’s expected losses or (iii) the right to receive the entity’s expected residual returns or (c) where the voting rights of some equity holders are not proportional to their obligations to absorb expected losses, receive expected residual returns or both, and substantially all of the entity’s activities either involve or are conducted on behalf of an investor that has disproportionately few voting rights. The Company is considered the primary beneficiary of a VIE and thus consolidates the VIE when the Company absorbs a majority of expected losses of the VIE, receives a majority of expected residual returns of the VIE (unless another enterprise absorbs the majority of expected losses), or both. Where it is not clear which variable interest holder is the primary beneficiary the Company performs computations and allocations of expected losses and expected residual returns as necessary to determine the primary beneficiary. The primary beneficiary determination has not historically required significant judgments or assumptions to be made. The Company determines if it is the primary beneficiary when it becomes involved in the VIE. If the Company is the primary beneficiary, it reconsiders this decision when it sells or otherwise disposes of all or part of our variable interests to unrelated parties or if the VIE issues new variable interests to parties other than the Company or its related parties. Conversely, if the Company is not the primary beneficiary, it reconsiders this decision when it acquires additional variable interests in these entities. </div> 1. GENERAL AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES The AES Corporation is a holding company (the “Parent Company”) that through its false false No definition available. No authoritative reference available. false false 1 1 false UnKnown UnKnown UnKnown false true