Energy Tech Summit 2026 keynote
Portugal built Europe’s first energy community. Cleanwatts’ José Basílio Simões on how AI, storage and microgrids turn local energy into something resilient enough to survive the next storm.
José Basílio Simões, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Cleanwatts Digital, opened by noting the grid is under stress – from storms, from the push for more renewables, and from the need to become more resilient. His answer is to rethink the grid from the bottom up, built locally around energy communities, storage and microgrids.
José Basílio Simões, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Cleanwatts Digital speaking at Energy Tech Summit 2026
Pioneers of the European energy community
Cleanwatts has been building energy communities in Portugal since the early days of the model, Simões said – Europe’s first energy community was set up in Portugal. Since then the company has contracted more than 100 communities, around 70 of them operating today.
The concept starts simple: local renewable production with consumption sited near it. But on its own, that setup still leans on the grid. The shift comes with storage.
From connected to islanded: the microgrid switch
Add batteries – particularly with black-start capability – and the system gains a second mode, Simões explained. In normal times it runs connected to the grid, optimizing energy use and cost. But in an extreme event, the same system can convert itself into island mode: forming a local microgrid that keeps supplying energy to consumers even when the wider grid is down.
That, he argued, is the difference between an energy community and a resilient one – power that survives the shock, not just power that’s local.
Why the intelligence matters
Holding all of this together is AI. The platform manages the whole system – deciding when demand and conditions call for drawing on the battery versus supporting the grid, and switching between grid-connected and island modes. Predictive intelligence, Simões said, uncovers consumption and production patterns that would otherwise stay invisible, and drives energy arbitrage on top.
The layers of benefit
Simões described the value as stacking in layers. The first is the energy community advantage itself: lower-cost production from local renewable sources.
The second is tariff optimization – achieved by partnering with an energy retailer, and using arbitrage to shift load away from the expensive peak hours that typically fall in the morning and evening.
The third layer is energy efficiency. With the platform monitoring consumption down to a consumer’s main sources of use, Simões put the achievable savings at around 3–5% – a figure he called a good result for energy efficiency.
José Basílio Simões, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Cleanwatts Digital speaking at Energy Tech Summit 2026
The takeaway
Simões’ closing message was about ambition, not just technology: the goal isn’t only to create energy communities, but resilient ones – microgrids that, taken together, start to build a genuinely new grid environment from the bottom up.
The keynote stage returns at Energy Tech Summit 2027 in Bilbao, April 7–8. Secure your pass.
