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Energy storage (ES) units are vital for the reliable and economical operation of the power system with a high penetration of renewable distributed generators (DGs). Due to ES's high investment costs and long payback period, energy management with shared ESs becomes a suitable choice for the demand side. This work investigates the sharing mechanism of ES units for low-voltage (LV) energy prosumer (EP) communities, in which energy interactions of multiple styles among the EPs are enabled, and the aggregated ES dispatch center (AESDC) is established as a special energy service provider to facilitate the scheduling and marketing mechanism. A shared ES operation framework considering multiple EP communities is established, in which both the energy scheduling and cost allocation methods are studied. Then a shared ES model and energy marketing scheme for multiple communities based on the leader–follower game is proposed. The Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) condition is used to transform the double-layer model into a single-layer model, and then the large M method and PSO-HS algorithm are used to solve it, which improves convergence features in both speed and performance. On this basis, a cost allocation strategy based on the Owen value method is proposed to resolve the issues of benefit distribution fairness and user privacy under current situations. A case study simulation is carried out, and the results show that, with the ES scheduling strategy shared by multiple renewable communities in the leader–follower game, the energy cost is reduced significantly, and all communities acquire benefits from shared ES operators and aggregated ES dispatch centers, which verifies the advantageous and economical features of the proposed framework and strategy. With the cost allocation strategy based on the Owen value method, the distribution results are rational and equitable both for the groups and individuals among the multiple EP communities. Comparing it with other algorithms, the presented PSO-HS algorithm demonstrates better features in computing speed and convergence. Therefore, the proposed mechanism can be implemented in multiple scenarios on the demand side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology is demonstrating vast potential in the realm of distributed energy transactions. This article employs the Ethereum platform to architect an energy trading settlement framework. By incorporating whitelists, authorization mechanisms, and dedicated energy tokens, transactions are rendered more secure and reliable, ensuring the openness, transparency, traceability, and immutability of transaction information. The proposed transaction settlement mechanism automatically updates users' energy imbalances and levies corresponding charges, thereby ensuring strict adherence to transaction contracts. Furthermore, during the settlement phase, smart contracts are employed to autonomously evaluate the creditworthiness of transaction parties, with results recorded on the blockchain. As the credit levels of the entities across the entire network increase, the block generation time for distributed energy trading blockchains becomes shorter, with the block generation time predominantly influenced by the credit rating of the highest-rated entity in the network. Hence, through smart contract design based on energy trading, blockchain technology is utilized to enhance the transparency and security of transaction settlement and clearing. Future research could focus on improving blockchain scalability, integrating emerging technologies, to advance the effectiveness and adoption of blockchain-based energy trading systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]