4/25/2025

Excitation System

Rajesh Kumar
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
NIT Hamirpur (H.P.)
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Introduction
• The excitation system of a synchronous machine comprises the
equipment which provides and controls the power to energize the
field winding.
• Various systems can be employed to energize the field winding of a
synchronous machine.
• The properties of each are different, and sometimes it may not be an
easy matter to decide which is most suitable for any particular
application.
• In arriving at the correct choice, it is most important to take account
of both the design characteristics of the synchronous machine and its
operating requirements when connected to other machines on the
network.

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• In the past the choice has been mainly confined to an

exciter of the conventional DC commutator type, driven
either directly from the shaft of the main machine or by
a separate motor.
• In addition, a simple electromechanical type of
automatic excitation control was generally employed to
maintain constant voltage at either the main machine
terminals or at some point in the transmission network.
• Recently there has been a great increase in power
requirements, which has resulted in the development of
large generating stations.

• Since large hydro-electric stations are not necessarily close

to the load source, the length of transmission lines has
increased and consequently stability problems have become
more important.
• It has also been realized that automatic excitation control
could significantly improve the steady-state and transient
stability of interconnected synchronous machines.
• The wrong choice of control characteristics will have an
adverse effect on the behavior of the machine.
• It is therefore important to make a careful study of both the
machine and the automatic control system in order to
achieve a satisfactory design.

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Excitation Requirements.
• The control of the excitation of a synchronous generator can be either
manual or automatic.
• In a well-designed control system the performance requirements of all
components must be closely matched to ensure that stable control of the
generator is maintained under all conditions of operation.
• Equipment must be designed to ensure that maintenance is kept to a
minimum and that control facilities are simple for the operating staff to use.
• The failure of excitation equipment will result in the loss of the main
generator,
• And the consequent loss of revenue will be very large compared with the
cost of allowing wide margins of safety in the excitation equipment.

• The design of the excitation equipment should therefore be governed by the

need for maximum reliability rather than minimum cost.
• The physical size of excitation equipment will be governed by the
maximum allowable mechanical and electrical stresses which will be
imposed under service conditions.
• The range of output of the supply provided by the excitation equipment
must be large enough to supply adequate excitation power to the rotor
winding for any mode of operation of the generator.
• From considerations of the generator performance characteristic, it is clear
that the range of excitation power required for a salient-pole type of
synchronous machine may be very large.
• An extreme operating condition occurs when a generator is connected to an
unloaded transmission line and is required to hold its voltage below the
rated value, whilst at the same time providing a large capacitive load
current.

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• In some cases a negative field current is necessary to

maintain a suitable ampere-turn balance.
• Nevertheless the quadrature-axis reactance and the
characteristics of the automatic control equipment limit the
amount of line-charging MVAr absorbed by the generator.
• Load disturbances may be severe for some hydro-electric
generators, and it is therefore important that the excitation
equipment should have a fast response to counteract these
disturbances and thus enable the machine to return quickly
to its preset conditions.
• Furthermore the excitation equipment may be required to
provide excitation power to the synchronous machine when
it is running under a wide range of speeds.

Excitation Sources
• There are numerous methods of providing excitation
power to the field winding of a synchronous machine.
• The excitation system is mainly classified into three
types. They are
– DC Excitation System
– AC Excitation System
• Rotor Excitation System
• Brushless Excitation System
• Static Excitation System

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DC Excitation System
• The DC excitation system has two exciters –
– the main exciter and
– a pilot exciter.
• The exciter output is adjusted by an automatic voltage regulator
(AVR) for controlling the output terminal voltage of the alternator.
• The current transformer input to the AVR ensures limiting of the
alternator current during a fault.
• When the field breaker is open, the field discharge resistor is
connected across the field winding so as to dissipate the stored
energy in the field winding which is highly inductive.

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• The main and the pilot exciters can be driven either by the
main shaft or separately driven by the motor.
• Direct driven exciters are usually preferred as these
preserve the unit system of operation, and the excitation is
not excited by external disturbances.
• The voltage rating of the main exciter is about 400 V, and its
capacity is about 0.5% of the capacity of the alternator.
• Troubles in the exciters of turbo alternator are quite
frequent because of their high speed and as such separate
motor driven exciters are provided as standby exciter.

• Advantages
– More reliable
– Compact in size
• Disadvantages
– Large size
– Voltage regulation was complex
– Very slow response

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AC Excitation System
• The AC excitation system consists of an alternator and
Thyristor rectifier bridge directly connected to the main
alternator shaft.
• The main exciter may either be self-excited or
separately excited.
• The AC excitation system may be broadly classified
into two categories:
– Rotating Thyristor Excitation System
– Brushless Excitation System

Rotating Thyristor Excitation System

• This system consists an AC exciter, stationary
field and a rotating armature.
• The output of the exciter is rectified by a full
wave Thyristor bridge rectifier circuit and is
supplied to the main alternator field winding.
• The rotor excitation system is shown in the figure.
• The rotating portion is being enclosed by the
dashed line.

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• The alternator field winding is also supplied through

another rectifier circuit.
• The exciter voltage can be built up by using it residual flux.
• The power supply and rectifier control generate the
controlled triggering signal.
• The alternator voltage signal is averaged and compare
directly with the operator voltage adjustment in the auto
mode of operation.
• In the manual mode of operation, the excitation current of
the alternator is compared with a separate manual voltage
adjustment.

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• Advantages
– Fast response
– Simple
– Low cost
• Disadvantages
– The main disadvantage is the response rate of the
thyristors is very low

Brushless Excitation System

• The brushless excitation system consists an alternator, rectifier,
main exciter and a permanent magnet generator alternator.
• The main and the pilot exciter are driven by the main shaft.
• The main exciter has a stationary field and a rotating armature
directly connected, through the silicon rectifiers to the field of
the main alternators.
• This system is shown in the figure.
• The rotating portion being enclosed by a dashed line rectangle.

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• The pilot exciter is the shaft driven permanent magnet

generator having rotating permanent magnets attached
to the shaft.
• And a three phase stationary armature, which feeds the
main exciter field through silicon rectifiers, in the field
of the main alternator.
• The pilot exciter is a shaft driven permanent magnetic
generator having rotating permanent magnets attached
to the shaft and a 3-phase stationary armature.
• Which feeds the main’s exciter through 3-phase full
wave phase controlled Thyristor bridges.

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• The system eliminates the use of a

commutator, collector and brushes have a short
time constant and a response time of fewer
than 0.1 seconds.
• The short time constant has the advantage in
improved small signal dynamic performance
and facilitates the application of
supplementary power system stabilizing
signals.

• To the synchronous generator, the brushless system provides field

current without using the slip ring and carbon brushes.
• The brushless exciter system coupled with a rotor shaft with 16
PMG (Permanent Magnet Exciter) and a three-phase main exciter
with a silicon diode rectifier.
• The permanent magnet exciter produces 400 Hz, 220 V AC supply.
• The alternator main rotor shaft coupled to the brushless exciter
circuit through no brushes, no slip rings, and through rotor leads.
• The main output of exciter is connected to the SCR bridge in hallow
shaft while permanent magnet exciter and the main exciter are
connected to the solid shaft.

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• Advantages
– Reliability is excellent
– The flexibility of operation is good
– System responses are good
– There is no moving contact in the brushless system, so
maintenance is low
• Disadvantages
– Response is slow
– There is no fast de-excitation

Static Excitation System

• This system consists of rectifier transformers, SCR output
stage, excitation start-up, and field discharge equipment,
and regulator and operational control circuits.
• In this system, there is no rotating part, so there is no
windage losses and no rotational losses.
• In this system, the three-phase output of the main alternator
is transferred to step down transformer and the system is
cheaper in small alternator below 500 MVA.

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• In this system, the supply is taken from the alternator itself

through a 3-phase star/delta connected step-down
transformer.
• The primary of the transformer is connected to the
alternator bus.
• Their secondary supplies power to the rectifier and also feed
power to the grid control circuit and other electrical
equipment.
• This system has a very small response time and provides
excellent dynamic performance.
• This system reduced the operating cost by eliminating the
exciter windage loss and winding maintenance.

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• Advantages
– The advantages of the static system are
– Reliability is good
– The flexibility of operation is very good
– System responses are excellent
– Small in size
– Low loss
– Simple
– High performance
• Disadvantages
– The main disadvantages of the static system are, it requires a slip
ring and brush

Exciter Drives
• There are two methods of driving a rotating exciter unit, namely:
– Directly from the main generator shaft.
– Separately by an electric motor or a water-driven turbine.
• Exciters are normally coupled directly to the shaft of the main generator.
• However on very slow-speed machines the physical size of the
commutator exciter becomes large, and hence the use of a separate drive
allows the designer freedom to choose a higher speed of rotation.
• This in turn may give a better exciter performance at a lower first cost,
provided that the higher speed does not reduce safety margins or affect
reliability.
• With an induction-motor drive, the torque/speed characteristics of the
motor will be influenced by both the voltage and frequency of the supply.

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• If this supply is obtained from the unit transformer, the momentary exciter
power demanded during a load disturbance on the generator may not be
available should the a.c. voltage level be reduced for one or two seconds.
• This may be overcome by providing the motor-driven set with sufficient
kinetic energy to provide maximum exciter output until the a.c. supply is
restored.
• The additional flywheel effect increases both the first cost and the motor
starting-torque requirements.
• It becomes difficult to give adequate fault protection for the motor, because
the starting current is more or less the same as it would be for a stalled
condition.
• An alternative arrangement is therefore to energize the motor from an
auxiliary a.c. generator fitted to the shaft of the main machine.

• However, the motor and exciter must be capable of operating at the

same over-speed as the main machine, which may significantly
increase the first cost.
• In general motor-generator sets are not preferred for use as an
excitation supply source if there is a technically and economically
satisfactory alternative.
• Shaft-driven exciters for vertical machines are normally mounted
directly above the main machine casing.
• On high-speed machines the tall structure may present problems of
mechanical design, e.g. it may necessitate an additional upper
bearing; moreover the special housing required can be difficult to
blend into the architecture of the main hall.

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Automatic Excitation-control Requirements

• The majority of hydro-electric generators are inter-connected with other generators
on transmission networks of various sizes and con-figurations.
• Whatever type of interconnection is adopted, it is important that some form of
automatic excitation control be employed to ensure that there is an efficient transfer
of reactive load, that this load is shared effectively between machines, and that a
predetermined level of voltage is maintained on the transmission network.
• Also during load disturbances it is important to ensure adequate damping and
synchronizing torques, and to provide a rapid recovery of the machine to steady
operating conditions.
• It is most important that the control equipment operates with maximum possible
reliability.
• Because of this latter requirement, it is usual to have some form of standby
excitation-control system, so that in the event of any fault occurring in the main
control system, the controls are auto-matically switched over.

• The standby control is normally, but not invariably, a manual

excitation-control system.
• If, for instance, the prime requirement is to maintain accurate
control of machine terminal voltage at all times, then the standby
control could be a duplicate automatic voltage-regulating
equipment.
• An automatic control system will enhance the steady-state stability
of a machine.
• It is of importance to both power-system planning engineers and to
operating engineers to have a control system which will give an
adequate range of MVAr load within prescribed stability limits.

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Testing of Equipment
• Equipment must be tested:
– To demonstrate that it performs satisfactorily and meets the specified
requirements.
– To enable its electrical, magnetic and mechanical characteristics to be
determined and adjusted if necessary.
– The tests can be roughly divided into two groups:
• Routine Tests.
– These are made in the factory on all components and equipments to ensure that their
performance characteristics are within acceptable limits.
– On site the equipment is subjected to a checking procedure to ensure that the
characteristics have not changed in transit. In addition its variable controls (gains and
damping) are set.
• Type tests.
– These are made to ensure that the design meets the performance specification. It is usual
to make some of the tests in the factory and the remainder at site, with and without the
machine connected to the transmission network.

• To ensure satisfactory performance, it is necessary to test the automatic

control system in conjunction with the generator and, sometimes, the power
system.
– Such combined tests would include the following:
– Small and large-step signal-response tests to demonstrate the speed of response
of the controlled machine and obtain a measure of the damping characteristics
and the influence of non-linearity with the machine operating on no-load and
disconnected from the network.
– A measure of the overall static gain of the control system.
– A test to demonstrate that the control system does not significantly change its
characteristics with varying supply frequency and ambient temperature.
– Determination of the steady-state stability limit with the machine operating in
the under-excited (leading power factor) zone.
– Effect of reactive load thrown 'on' and 'off' the machine.

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• In addition frequency response tests are usually performed in the factory

and/or at site.
• These are made by injecting a series of low-frequency sinusoidal
disturbances into the control system and measuring the frequency response
of the controlled signal, both when the machine is on no-load and
disconnected from the power system and also when connected to the
system and loaded.
• The results are plotted as a series of inverse Nyquist diagrams, and the
quality of the control is assessed in terms of the natural frequency, damping
factor, phase margin, unity cross-over frequency, and phase crossover
frequency.
• If the excitation supply is taken from the station essential auxiliary board,
then further tests should be made on site to demonstrate the behavior of the
equipment when subjected to a sudden reduction in supply voltage.

Automatic Excitation – Control Equipment

• The basic action of an automatic excitation-control system:
• The system monitors the parameter to be controlled (e.g.
machine terminal voltage) and senses the deviation from a
preset level.
• Any deviation will cause the excitation power to be changed
so as to restore the parameter as quickly as possible to its
preset level.
• This action is illustrated in fig. in which the control system
is a continuously acting automatic voltage regulator
controlling the terminal voltage of a generator.

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Simplified
block diagram
and static
characteristics
of a generator
excitation
control system.

• The basic control loop consists of four main

elements:
– A deviation (error signal) detector.
– An actuating device.
– An excitation power source.
– A generator whose terminal voltage is to be
controlled.

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• Deviation Devices:
– As the name implies, deviation devices are employed
to detect any deviation of the controlled voltage signal
from its preset level and give an output error signal
proportional to the deviation.
– The device may be either electro-mechanical, or an
electrical type having no moving parts.
– Irrespective of the type, the device must include a
preset reference element and a means of comparing the
reference level with the signal to be controlled.

• Electro-mechanical Type.
– This device is energized from a single-phase signal
obtained from the machine terminal voltage.
– The output of this device is a torque equal to the
difference between a reference torque, produced by a
spring mechanism, and a torque proportional to the
monitored signal, produced by an eddy-current disc
mechanism.
– The difference torque is converted to an electrical-
error signal by means of a moving sector which
changes the resistance in the field circuit of the main
exciter.

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• Electrical Types.
– There are basically two types of electrical
reference elements which are in general use,
namely:
• A constant-current device.
• A constant-voltage device.

• Signal Amplifying Devices:

– These devices are required to amplify the
relatively low-power error signal obtained from the
deviation device so that it is large enough to
control the excitation supply to the main-generator
field winding.
– These are either
• rotating or
• static types,

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• Rotating Amplifiers:
– Several types of rotating amplifiers are used in control systems.
– The most common type employed for automatic excitation
control on hydro-electric machines is the amplidyne.
– This is a special type of direct current generator the output of
which is obtained from a set of brushes which are in quadrature
with another set of short circuited brushes.
– The machine may be regarded as a two stage power amplifier,
which must be run at a high speed.
– Consequently such machines are separately driven by an
induction motor.
– The amplidyne has a high gain but a rather long time control.
The latter, together with commutation problems, has resulted in a
trend towards the use of static amplifiers.

• Static Amplifiers.
• The three types at present in use are:
– Transistor amplifiers.
– Magnetic amplifiers.
– Thyristor, or (silicon controlled rectifier)
amplifiers.

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