Excitation Control of the Synchronous Generator

In a world of change, new technologies replace old ones ever-more quickly. In the early years, change was slow as the evolutionary process transitioned from electromechanical voltage regulators with motor-driven rheostats to high-gain rotating exciters. These exciters included such systems as the Amplidyne, Regulex, and Rototrol, which improved performance to control the generator output. In the past 30 years, however, change has progressed from magnetic technology to analog control. Analog excitation represented the multiple component module assembly with interlooping wire interconnections (see Fig. 1).