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Fair Value of Financial Instruments - Counterparty Credit Risk (Details) $ in Millions | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2018 USD ($)
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Counterparty credit exposure to a portion of the Company's counterparties | $ 505
Net counterparty credit exposure to a portion of the Company's counterparties | 244
Collateral held (cash and letters of credit) against counterparty credit exposure to a portion of the Company's counterparties | $ 264
Company's exposure before collateral is expected to roll off by the end of 2019 (as a percent) | 83.00%
Net exposure (as a percent) | 100.00%
Counterparty credit risk exposure to certain counterparties, threshold (as a percent) | 10.00%
Aggregate counterparty credit risk exposure for counterparties representing exposure above threshold percentage | $ 65
Estimated counterparty credit risk exposure under certain long term agreements, including California tolling agreements, South Central load obligations and solar power purchase agreements for the next 5 years | $ 4,100
Period of estimated counterparty credit risk exposure under certain long term agreements, including California tolling agreements, South Central load obligations and solar power purchase agreements (in years) | 5 years
NRG Yield, Inc. |
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Estimated counterparty credit risk exposure under certain long term agreements, including California tolling agreements, South Central load obligations and solar power purchase agreements for the next 5 years | $ 2,500
Investment grade |
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Net exposure (as a percent) | 78.00%
Non-Investment grade/Non-Rated |
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Net exposure (as a percent) | 22.00%
Utilities, energy merchants, marketers and other |
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Net exposure (as a percent) | 78.00%
Financial institutions |
Concentration of Credit Risk |
Net exposure (as a percent) | 22.00%

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- Definition The aggregate amount of net counterparty credit risk exposure to certain counterparties representing more than 10% of total net counterparty exposure. + References No definition available. + Details
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Balance Type: | credit
Period Type: | instant

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- Definition Carrying amount as of the balance sheet date of cash collateral and letters of credit received by the entity on deposit from third parties in support of energy risk management. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition The percentage of net counterparty credit exposure that rolls-off by the end of 2012. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Represents the threshold percentage for disclosure of counterparty credit exposure. + References No definition available. + Details
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Period Type: | duration

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- Definition Represents the percentage of net counterparty credit exposure of the entity. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition This element represents the estimated amount of the counterparty credit risk exposure. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Estimated Counterparty Credit Risk Exposure to Certain Counterparties, Period + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Represents the net exposure of the entity determined as total credit exposure to all counterparties less collateral (cash and letters of credit) held against those positions as of the reporting date. + References No definition available. + Details
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Namespace Prefix: | nrg_
Data Type: | xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type: | credit
Period Type: | instant

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- Definition Maximum amount of loss due to credit risk that, based on the gross fair value of the financial instrument, the entity would incur if parties to the financial instruments that make up the concentration failed completely to perform according to the terms of the contracts and the collateral or other security, if any, for the amount due proved to be of no value to the entity. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 825 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 21 -Subparagraph (b) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77997519&loc=d3e13537-108611 + Details
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- Definition 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. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Details
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