  In this paper, the benefits of distributed energy resources (DERs) are
considered in an energy management scheme for a smart community consisting of a
large number of residential units (RUs) and a shared facility controller (SFC).
A non-cooperative Stackelberg game between RUs and the SFC is proposed in order
to explore how both entities can benefit, in terms of achieved utility and
minimizing total cost respectively, from their energy trading with each other
and the grid. From the properties of the game, it is shown that the maximum
benefit to the SFC in terms of reduction in total cost is obtained at the
unique and strategy proof Stackelberg equilibrium (SE). It is further shown
that the SE is guaranteed to be reached by the SFC and RUs by executing the
proposed algorithm in a distributed fashion, where participating RUs comply
with their best strategies in response to the action chosen by the SFC. In
addition, a charging-discharging scheme is introduced for the SFC's storage
device (SD) that can further lower the SFC's total cost if the proposed game is
implemented. Numerical experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed
scheme.
