DECS-400 digital excitation control system from Basler

One popular analog design of the 1990s was the Westinghouse/Cutler Hammer MGR excitation system, now supported by Basler Electric. It was a robust voltage regulator that was applied to either the exciter field or main generator field, depending upon the application. Similar to many of the voltage excitation systems of the time, the MGR had discrete modules for each function. There were separate modules for the voltage regulator, manual control, individual reference adjusters for var control, the voltage regulator and manual control, and separate modules for under and over excitation limiters. An unfortunate trademark of these analog systems was substantial amounts of wiring, many control relays, and a high degree of wiring complexity inside the cubicle even for a simple system.

Basler’s DECS-400 digital excitation control system offers the perfect solution for replacing only the components that need replacement - specifically, the analog portion of the MGR - and keeping the power rectifier bridge, power potential transformer, ac field breaker, dc field flash contactor, etc.

Application Note EX-MGR1 describes the conversion of the analog portion of the MGR static exciter system using the DECS-400 digital controller as a front end replacement that provides firing pulses to the existing power rectifier bridges.