Active Power Thermal Feasibility Assessment of EV Integration with DER Scheduling and Distribution Network Reconfiguration

Abstract

The rapid growth of electric vehicle (EV) adoption poses operational and economic challenges for distribution systems, including increased line loading and network congestion. As a practical near-term alternative to infrastructure reinforcement, distribution network topology reconfiguration (DNTR) can redistribute power flows, reduce operating costs, and improve operational flexibility. This paper presents a data driven operational feasibility framework for evaluating EV integration under increasing demand levels across four configurations: standard distribution network (SDN), SDN with DNTR (SDNTR), SDN with distributed energy resources (SDN-DER), and SDNTR with DERs (SDNTR-DER). Smart meter derived EV charging behavior is used to construct nodal EV demand profiles, which are incorporated into a mixed integer linear programming based active power screening model for a modified IEEE 33 bus distribution system. Feasibility is assessed with respect to nodal active power balance, line thermal limits, radiality and connectivity, DER limits, and BESS intertemporal operation. A bisection search identifies maximum active power thermal feasible EV demand levels of 51%, 68%, 85%, and 102% for SDN, SDN-DER, SDNTR, and SDNTR-DER, respectively. The 102% result represents full residential EV adoption with a 2% additional charging demand margin. At 0% EV penetration, SDNTR-DER reduces operating cost by 54% relative to SDN, representing the baseline economic value of coordinated DER scheduling and DNTR. The reported limits represent active power thermal feasibility boundaries rather than full AC hosting capacity limits.