Energy system projects in countries like India are often failing. Not only because of technical or economical barriers, but mainly institutional and social issues are at the base of these failures. A co-creation, or participatory, process to align all demands and requirements of the different stakeholders is required. This paper takes evidence from literature on co-creation and energy systems and from case study research in India to help define an approach towards such a co-creation process as a use case for the application of the Responsible Innovation Systems framework. A discussion on co-creation as a solution generates a number of recommendations, after which a set of characteristics is concluded that the co-creation process of energy systems should have towards a responsible approach, so that more robust and sustainable innovations might emerge.