Digital excitation system provides enhanced tuning over analog systems

Performance test of the generator and excitation system is becoming increasingly important to provide reliable and continuous power to the user, Increased awareness for an optimally tuned excitation system has become very important as consumer power demand continues to escalate with limited generation. Additionally, limited manpower in generation plants emphasizes the need for elicitation systems to be user-friendly and accessible to the commissioning engineer for easy and expedient setup. In many power plants, poor performance, typical of older excitation systems, can lead to sluggish terminal voltage recovery that can affect motor starting, and breaker coordination. Historically, tuning the analog excitation system would involve the lengthy process of trial and error and possibly adding external stability networks to obtain desired system performance. Digital excitation systems today offer innovative methods to quickly calibrate the excitation system, and provide analysis to make commissioning fast and performance predictable. This paper addresses the features in new excitation control that will speed commissioning and offer a greater variety of tuning tools to ensure a desired performance to a specific plant.