President of Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Shunji Kurita
President of Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Shunji Kurita, who attended the code’s launch and signed-up to the code as a representative of the company’s Living Environment Systems (LES) Business Unit, explained that the new policy was an important move to support the wide-scale deployment of energy smart appliances across the EU.
“Societies are increasingly turning to heat pumps as the primary means of decarbonising the heating and cooling of buildings and, as one of the continent’s largest manufacturers of heat pumps, we fully support this launch of a code to certify the energy smart behaviour of products,” said Mr Kurita.
'Electrification is key to society as a clean renewable energy source and to this end, we want to support customers who are using our products as renewable energy heat sources, so it is important that efficiency is at the heart of the new code,” he added.
The code of conduct for Energy Smart Appliances is a first step in an ongoing dialogue between EU regulators, manufacturers of smart appliances, and partners from the electricity grid, and Mitsubishi Electric welcomes the opportunity to contribute to that dialogue.
“The Code of Conduct is designed to foster the development of a fleet of interoperable energy smart appliances which can support demand flexibility services, across brands. It will contribute to shaping a more flexible, cost-effective, sustainable, and resilient energy system crucial for the net zero transition,” commented Mechthild Wörsdörfer, the DG ENER Deputy Director-General, on behalf of the European Commission.
“I welcome Mitsubishi Electrics’ commitment as signatory to the Code of Conduct, as it will undoubtedly help accelerating the momentum and scale of this initiative,” she added.
Capacity is equally important in electricity grids across the European Union’s Member States, and these grids must be able to deliver the electricity for the increased demand from the deployment of heat pumps. However, building out the electricity grids across Europe will not take place overnight and this is where the heat pumps have such an important role to play.
“Demand side flexibility is a functionality that is inherent to heat pumps as a technology, thanks to the inverter compressors that some would say are the very heart of a heat pump”, explained Mr Kurita.
“This demand side flexibility with heat pumps can provide a source of capacity and is an excellent example of how heat pumps will help to enable a green transition while providing customers with highly efficient, cost-effective comfort,” he concluded.