Reliability and availability of VSC-HVDC links: A state of the art

This paper presents a documentary study about works related to the VSC-HVDC links reliability and availability assessment. The VSC-HVDC technology have proved to be a technical solution and cost effective choice to electric power transmission and occasionally it represents the only alternative to electric power transmission over the HVAC links to connect offshore wind-farms, for transmission over long distances and large bodies of water, for interconnection of two HVAC systems with different frequencies and for super-grids building. Since the VSC-HVDC technology provide multiple benefits in the electric power transmission and its technology is relatively young, is necessary known its behavior and models of reliability and availability which can lead to a wider use of this kind of links because the reliability and availability studies are very relevant to the implementation of new transmission system projects.