This study assesses the techno-economic potential of selected efficient demand-side appliances to mitigate emission of air pollutants from the power sector of Sri Lanka. The study shows that through the use of the selected efficient appliances a total of about 38 646 GWh (i.e. 18.5% of total electricity generation) and about 25.6% (29 541, 000 tons), 34.2% (293,000 tons) and 34.6% (374,000 tons) of the total CO2, SO2 and NOx emission respectively could be avoided during 1997-2015 with the use of the efficient appliances from the technical and national economic perspectives. The generation savings from utility and user perspectives and emission mitigation potential are, however, significantly smaller as all the selected appliances are not found cost effective from these perspectives. This is mainly because electricity prices in the commercial and industrial sectors exceed the corresponding long-run marginal cost (LRMC) of electricity supply.