A Synchronous machine is one in which alternating current flows in the armature winding, and dc excitation is supplied to the field winding. The armature winding is almost invariably on the stator and is usually a three-phase winding. The field winding is on the rotor.

The dc power required for excitation--approximately one to a few percent of the rating of the synchronous machine is supplied by the excitation system.

In older machines, the excitation current was typically supplied through slip rings from a dc machine, referred to as the exciter, which was often mounted on the same shaft as the synchronous machine.

In more modern systems, the excitation is supplied from ac exciters and solid-state rectifiers (either simple diode bridges or phase-controlled rectifiers).

In some cases, the rectification occurs in the stationary frame, and the rectified excitation current is fed to the rotor via slip tings. In other systems, referred to as brushless excitation systems, the alternator of the ac exciter is on the rotor, as is the rectification system, and the current is supplied directly to the field-winding without the need for slip rings.

A single synchronous generator supplying power to an impedance load acts as a voltage source whose frequency is determined by the speed of its mechanical drive. The amplitude of the generated voltage is proportional to the frequency and the field current.

The current and power factor are then determined by the generator field excitation and the impedance of the generator and load.

Synchronous generators can be readily operated in parallel, and, in fact, the electricity supply systems of industrialized countries typically have scores or even hundreds of them operating in parallel, interconnected by thousands of miles of transmission lines, and supplying electric energy to loads scattered over areas of many thousands of square miles.

These huge systems have grown in spite of the necessity for designing the system so that synchronism is maintained following disturbances and the problems, both technical and administrative, which must be solved to coordinate the operation of such a complex system of machines and personnel.

The principal reasons for these interconnected systems are reliability of service and economies in
plant investment and operating costs.

When a synchronous generator is connected to a large interconnected system containing many other synchronous generators, the voltage and frequency at its armature terminals are substantially fixed by the system. As a result, armature currents will produce a component of the air-gap magnetic field which rotates at synchronous speed as determined by the system electrical frequency.

The production of a steady, unidirectional electromechanical torque, the fields of the stator and rotor must rotate at the same speed, and therefore the rotor must turn at precisely synchronous speed. Because any individual generator is a small fraction of the total system generation, it cannot significantly affect the system voltage or frequency.

It is thus often useful, when studying the behavior of an individual generator or group of generators, to represent the remainder of the system as a constant-frequency, constant-voltage source, commonly referred to as an infinite bus.

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