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Financial Statement Presentation (Policies)
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Consolidation
Consolidation
In this Quarterly Report the terms “AES,” “the Company,” “us” or “we” refer to the consolidated entity including its subsidiaries and affiliates. The terms “The AES Corporation,” “the Parent” or “the Parent Company” refer only to the publicly held holding company, The AES Corporation, excluding its subsidiaries and affiliates. Furthermore, VIEs in which the Company has a variable interest have been consolidated where the Company is the primary beneficiary. Investments in which the Company has the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, are accounted for using the equity method of accounting. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.
New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted
New Accounting Pronouncements Adopted
ASU No. 2014-08, Presentation of Financial Statements (Topic 205) and Property, Plant and Equipment (Topic 360), Reporting Discontinued Operations and Disclosures of Disposals of Components of an Entity
Effective July 1, 2014, the Company prospectively adopted ASU No. 2014-08, which significantly changed the previous accounting guidance on discontinued operations. Under ASU No. 2014-08, only those disposals of components of an entity that represent a strategic shift that has (or will have) a major effect on an entity’s operations and financial results will be reported as discontinued operations. Other changes are as follows: equity method investments that were previously scoped-out of the discontinued operations accounting guidance are now included in the scope; a business can meet the criteria to be classified as held for sale upon acquisition and can be reported in discontinued operations; and components where an entity retains significant continuing involvement or where operations and cash flows will not be eliminated from ongoing operations as a result of a disposal transaction can meet the definition of discontinued operations. Additionally, where summarized amounts are presented on the face of the financial statements, reconciliations of those amounts to major classes of line items are also required. ASU No. 2014-08 requires additional disclosures for individually material components that do not meet the definition of discontinued operations. Under the previous accounting guidance, the UK Wind and Ebute disposals in the third and fourth quarters of 2014, respectively, would have met the discontinued operations criteria and would have been reclassified accordingly. Additionally, Armenia Mountain, which met the held-for-sale criteria in the first quarter of 2015, would have met the discontinued operations criteria under the previous accounting guidance and would have been reclassified accordingly.
ASU No. 2014-05, Service Concession Arrangements (Topic 853)
Effective January 1, 2015, the Company adopted ASU No. 2014-05, which states that certain service concession arrangements with public-sector entity grantors are not in scope of ASC 840, Leases (“ASC 840”) and that entities should not recognize the related infrastructure as property, plant and equipment, but should apply other GAAP. The Company has a small number of entities that fall within the scope of this guidance, with the Company’s Mong Duong generation facility in Vietnam being the most significant.
Mong Duong is a build, operate and transfer agreement with the Vietnam government. Management concluded there were two deliverables included within the arrangement, as well as a financing element. Due to the contingent nature of the revenue stream, no amounts of revenue can be recognized during the build phase of the contract. All amounts billed during the operate phase will be recognized as revenue when billed, with amounts allocated between the financing element and build and operate deliverables. The financing element will be recognized as interest income using the effective interest method as payments received for construction of the plant are received over the life of the contract. Costs are expensed as incurred. As the related infrastructure is no longer considered property, plant and equipment, there are no longer any capitalizable expenses beyond those related to the initial build, and accordingly these will be expensed as incurred. All cash flows, excluding those related to the debt incurred by AES for these arrangements will be reflected in cash flows from operating activities on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows prospectively.
The guidance was applied on a modified retrospective basis to service concession arrangements in existence at January 1, 2015. Upon adoption of this standard, the impact to the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet as of January 1, 2015 resulted in a reclassification of $1.5 billion from property, plant and equipment to service concession assets, as well as a cumulative adjustment to retained earnings and cumulative translation adjustment of $(18) million, net of tax, and $13 million, respectively.
Accounting Pronouncements Issued But Not Yet Effective
The following accounting standards have been issued but are not yet effective for, nor have been adopted by, AES:
ASU No. 2015-05, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other — Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement
In April 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-05, which clarifies how customers in cloud computing arrangements should determine whether the arrangement includes a software license and eliminates the existing requirement for customers to account for software licenses they acquired by analogizing to the accounting guidance on leases. The standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods therein. Early adoption is permitted. The standard permits the use of a prospective or retrospective approach. The Company has not yet selected a transition method and is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements.
ASU No. 2015-03, Interest — Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30)
In April 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-03, which simplifies the presentation of debt issuance costs by requiring that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability, consistent with debt discounts. The recognition and measurement guidance for debt issuance costs are not affected by the amendments in this update. The standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods therein, and requires the use of the full retrospective approach. Early adoption is permitted for financial statements that have not been previously issued. As of March 31, 2015, the Company had approximately $384 million in deferred financing costs classified in other noncurrent assets that would be reclassified to reduce the related debt liabilities upon adoption of ASU No. 2015-03.
ASU No. 2015-02, Consolidation — Amendments to the Consolidation Analysis (Topic 810)
In February 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-02, which makes targeted amendments to the current consolidation guidance and ends the deferral granted to investment companies from applying the VIE guidance. The standard amends the evaluation of whether (1) fees paid to a decision-maker or service providers represent a variable interest, (2) a limited partnership or similar entity has the characteristics of a VIE and (3) a reporting entity is the primary beneficiary of a VIE. The standard is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods therein. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently assessing the impact of the standard on its consolidated financial statements.
ASU No. 2014-12, Compensation — Stock Compensation (Topic 718)
In June 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-12, which is intended to resolve the diverse accounting treatment in practice with compensation awards. The objective of the new standard is to clarify the treatment of accounting for performance targets that affect award vesting. The standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods therein. Early adoption is permitted. The standard permits the use of either a prospective or modified retrospective approach. The Company has not yet selected a transition method and is currently evaluating the impact of the standard on its financial position and results of operations.
ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)
In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09 which clarifies principles for recognizing revenue and will result in a common revenue standard for U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. The objective of the new standard is to provide a single and comprehensive revenue recognition model for all contracts with customers to improve comparability. The revenue standard contains principles that an entity will apply to determine the measurement of revenue and timing of when it is recognized. The standard requires an entity to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers at an amount that the entity expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. The standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016 and interim periods therein. Early adoption is not permitted. The standard permits the use of either a full retrospective or modified retrospective approach. The Company has not yet selected a transition method and is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. In April 2015, the FASB tentatively decided to defer the effective date by one year but to permit early adoption on the original effective date. These decisions are being exposed for public comment.
Commitments and Contingencies
Litigation
The Company is involved in certain claims, suits and legal proceedings in the normal course of business. The Company accrues for litigation and claims when it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. The Company has evaluated claims in accordance with the accounting guidance for contingencies that it deems both probable and reasonably estimable and, accordingly, has recognized aggregate liabilities for all claims of approximately $193 million and $199 million as of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively. These amounts are reported on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets within accrued and other liabilities and other noncurrent liabilities. A significant portion of these accrued liabilities relate to employment, non-income tax and customer disputes in international jurisdictions, principally Brazil. Certain of the Company’s subsidiaries, principally in Brazil, are defendants in a number of labor and employment lawsuits. The complaints generally seek unspecified monetary damages, injunctive relief, or other relief. The subsidiaries have denied any liability and intend to vigorously defend themselves in all of these proceedings. There can be no assurance that these accrued liabilities will be adequate to cover all existing and future claims or that we will have the liquidity to pay such claims as they arise.
Segment Reporting
The segment reporting structure uses the Company’s management reporting structure as its foundation to reflect how the Company manages the businesses internally and is organized by geographic regions which provide better socio-political-economic understanding of our business. The management reporting structure is organized along six SBUs — led by our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). Using the accounting guidance on segment reporting, the Company has determined that it has six reportable segments corresponding to its six SBUs:
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US SBU;
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Andes SBU;
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Brazil SBU;
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MCAC SBU;
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Europe SBU; and
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Asia SBU
Corporate and Other — Corporate overhead costs which are not directly associated with the operations of our six reportable segments are included in “Corporate and Other.” Also included are certain intercompany charges such as self-insurance premiums which are fully eliminated in consolidation.
The Company uses Adjusted PTC as its primary segment performance measure. Adjusted PTC, a non-GAAP measure, is defined by the Company as pretax income from continuing operations attributable to AES excluding unrealized gains or losses related to derivative transactions, unrealized foreign currency gains or losses, gains or losses due to dispositions and acquisitions of business interests, losses due to impairments and costs due to the early retirement of debt. The Company has concluded that Adjusted PTC best reflects the underlying business performance of the Company and is the most relevant measure considered in the Company’s internal evaluation of the financial performance of its segments. Additionally, given its large number of businesses and complexity, the Company concluded that Adjusted PTC is a more transparent measure that better assists investors in determining which businesses have the greatest impact on the overall Company results.    
All intra-segment activity has been eliminated with respect to revenue and Adjusted PTC within the segment. Inter-segment activity has been eliminated within the total consolidated results.
Earnings Per Share
Basic and diluted earnings per share are based on the weighted-average number of shares of common stock and potential common stock outstanding during the period. Potential common stock, for purposes of determining diluted earnings per share, includes the effects of dilutive RSUs, stock options and convertible securities. The effect of such potential common stock is computed using the treasury stock method or the if-converted method, as applicable.