these factors help explain why poor households utilize several complementary sources of energy to meet their needs rather than switching straight away to electricity when provided access to it in other words consumers will naturally choose energy mixes that reflect the marginal cost of different energy sources eg electricity used only for lighting television or radio charcoal or lpg for cooking kerosene for heating even when provided with affordable energy alternatives households may not completely stop utilizing biomass for instance even highincome households in india maintain a traditional fuel wood stove to cook traditional dishes