Foreword

Modern Synchronous Generator Excitation System Design and Application has finally come out, and this is the fifth excitation monograph I have authored in my career of more than 60 years as an excitation professional.

The first excitation monograph, Automatic Adjustment Excitation Devices, which was written in 1958, was published by Water Resources and Electric Power Press. I was studying Russian at the preparation department of study abroad in the USSR of Beijing Foreign Studies University. My initial plan was to use my spare time to summarize the results of my engagement in the field of excitation in Harbin Electric Machine Factory over the past five years. But later, I got the idea of writing a book with the support, encouragement, and recommendation of Professor Shi Cheng of Department of Electrical Engineering in Tsinghua University, who studied in Germany. From my technical career perspective, the reason why this book has been published is because Professor Shi Cheng was my first mentor.

Automatic Adjustment Excitation Devices was the first excitation monograph published in China that discusses excitation systems with the direct-current exciter and magnetic amplifier excitation regulator. Its success was unexpected effects were gained after publishing, and it almost became the most influential monograph in the water and electricity industry for more than ten years. No matter where I would go, even in a small hydropower station on a remote mountain, I would get a warm reception. It was such an honor for a young man in his twenties to become a recognized author. Cases like this, there are still more.

The publication of the second excitation monograph, Modern Synchronous Generator Rectifier Excitation Systems, was much bumpier. Due to well-known historical circumstances, the manuscript was written in 1968 and published only in 1988, a gap of twenty years. Four times during this period, the manuscript was rewritten, and the hard work it entailed is beyond the reach of the pen. Some materials in the manuscript were written on road trips, some were conceived in crowded train stations, in the shuttling lounges, while some chapters were written during holidays.

In particular, I remember some of the chapters were written when I worked in the rural production team in Liuhaogou, Lixin commune, Acheng district, in Harbin suburb in the early 1970s. In the severe winter in the northern rural areas, the night is quiet and the wind is cold and chilly. In the rural cottage where I lived, I often used to burn clay or fill a small indoor furnace with a pile of corn sticks to keep warm. The raging flames filled me with hope; however, the warmth was only momentary, just like the matches in the hands of the "little match girl" of Hans Christian Andersen's, it flashed! A wisp of moonlight gleaming through the window, flashing against the freezing frost of the corner of the wall. The scene, the situation, was really "a window of moon, a curtain of frost." Loneliness, depression, and tears welled up in my heart, and this was often the case with writing at night.

As time passes, my nib has been creeping on paper, like a silkworm crawling on mulberry leaves. Over the decades of my youth, I have been steadfastly trying to realize my dream of writing to give play to my personal value.

There are many happy moments associated with writing in the journey of my life, and the social identity of being a writer has given me great encouragement and inspiration. I remember that when I visited the Xinjiang Dushanzi power plant in 1995, I wanted to return to Urumqi on that very day, but when the factory leader came to know that I was the author of Modern Synchronous Generator Rectifier Excitation System, he said, "Teacher Li is here! Teacher Li is here ...." I was invited to stay overnight immediately, with five leaders in the factory accompanying me, and a special banquet was arranged for Xinjiang flavor in the luxurious Bachman hotel. What shocked me the most was that even in the long northwest desert, a book can have such wide-ranging influence. It should be mentioned that Professor Jingde Gao, master of Tsinghua University, wrote the preface for my second monograph. I will always remember his care and encouragement for the rest of my life.

Design and Application of Modern Synchronous Generator Excitation Systems was my third excitation monograph, conceived at the end of 1995 and published in July 2002; its writing took more than seven years. The manuscript was written in all parts of the country; some were written in the library of Urumqi Petrochemical Plant in Xinjiang Urumqi, and some parts were written in Fulaerji Thermal Power Plant in Jinan Shandong, Chaozhou Guangdong and the Northeast, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, Tianwan Nuclear Power Station, Yangzhou Second Power Plant, Zhuhai Power Plant, and other places.

The third monograph was published at a time of rapid economic and technological development in China. Due to the needs of the times, the publication of the third excitation monograph received a favorable response.

It is particularly worth noting that the publication of the third monograph received the support and help of many colleagues in the industry, especially my best friend, Qing LU, academician of Chinese Academy of Science and professor of Tsinghua University, who wrote the preface for the monograph. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to him.

My fourth excitation monograph, Design and Application of The Modern Synchronous Generator Excitation System (second edition), was published in 2009 and was conceived in 2003; it took me six years to write it. The writing background of the fourth monograph is that I served as the chief technical adviser of the 700 MW hydropower unit excitation system of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station in 2003, and participated in the commissioning and commissioning of the left bank unit excitation system. At the construction site, I personally feel hydropower builders' love for the motherland and their selfless dedication of the great mind. This vigorous and enterprising spirit of the ages has given me great momentum to keep pace with the times! Through two years on-site work in the Three Gorges hydropower station excitation system, I gained a better understanding and mastery of the performance characteristics of the excitation system in large units.

After that, I also worked at the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station as a technical support consultant for the Russian 1000 MW nuclear power plant excitation system, participated in on-site commissioning, special research and personnel training, translated the relevant Russian technical documents as well as organizing personnel training.

These business experiences, as well as the training work in Zhuhai Power Plant 740 MW excitation system, Yangzhou Second Power Plant 600 MW excitation system, Westinghouse Thermal Power Plant excitation system, and Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station 1000 MW Russian nuclear power plant excitation system; and the research and special project investigation on the excitation system of the pumped storage unit, all these gave me the idea of creating a monograph to discuss excitation systems across disciplinary boundaries. For example, in the field of excitation of hydropower pumped storage units, while discussing the excitation system, the switching of operation mode and frequency conversion starting feature are supplemented, giving the reader a complete and systematic understanding of the topic. At the same time, in the discussion of the basic chapters, for example, more emphasis was put on the application of the excitation system during the discussion of the basic characteristics of the synchronous motor and the description of the characteristics of the rectifying line. That is the reason why Design and Application of The Modern Synchronous Generator Excitation System (Second Edition) was developed.

Design and Application of Modern Synchronous Generator Excitation System is my fifth excitation monograph, which was written in 2013 and took more than four years to finalize. The biggest difference between the third edition and the second edition is that the second edition is about the excitation systems of Three Gorges Hydropower Station and Tian Wan Nuclear Power Plant, all of which belong to the design level of around 2000, while the third edition discusses mainly the 850 MW hydroelectric power unit excitation system in Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station with the world's largest single machine capacity, the 1000 MW steam turbine thermal power unit excitation system of Malaysia Manjung 4 Thermal Power Station, and the excitation systems of the 1278 MVA half-speed turbo-generator unit of Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant and the 1407 MVA half-speed turbo-generator unit of Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant, which are all excitation systems of world-class design level in 2015.

In addition to focusing on the development of contemporary cutting-edge control technology of excitation, the content of the third edition pays more attention to its novel and comprehensive requirements, laying emphasis on the close integration of engineering applications and basic theory. For example, the premise of a discussion of the basic theory of the synchronous motor should be to help analyze the characteristics of excitation systems, and the discussion of the three-phase bridge rectifier line should be closely related to the analysis of the operational characteristics of the power rectifier.

The third edition, based on a discussion of excitation...