Field flashing a synchronous generator

When power goes completely out, it is necessary to excite the fields of power system generators with battery power to re-start the generators before switching back to using generator output power for field excitation; this is known as a black start. We designed a black start field exciter system for the 20-kVA synchronous generator and ABB UNITROL 1020 exciter in the Analog Model Power System at the University of Idaho to be used for starting excitation on the generator and research on black start conditions. The completed system was modeled in Real Time Digital Simulation for incorporation into power system transient simulations.