Gujarat, a large industrialized state in India, consumed 67 TWh of electricity in 2009-10, besides experiencing a 4.5% demand supply short-fall. Residential sector accounted for 15% of the total electricity consumption. We conducted load research survey across 21 cities and towns of the state to estimate residential electricity load curves, share of appliances by type and usage patterns for all types of household appliances at utility, geographic, appliance, income and end-use levels. The results indicate that a large scope exists for penetration of energy efficient devices in residential sector. Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) curves for electricity and CO2 were generated to analyze relative attractiveness of energy efficient appliance options. Results indicate that up to 7.9 TWh of electricity can be saved per year with 6.7 Mt-CO2 emissions mitigation at negative or very low CO2 prices of US$ 10/t-CO2. Despite such options existing, their penetration is not realized due to myriad barriers such as financial, institutional or awareness and therefore cannot be taken as baseline options for CO2 emission mitigation regimes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.