It is suggested to replace the double-winding transformer of the excitation system of a synchronous machine with a valve-side winding rated for the total forcing voltage and rated current by a three-winding transformer with two valve-side windings, i.e., working and forcing. In the proposed transformer, each of the windings is connected to its own converter bridge circuit and the voltages are summed up during field forcing, which allows the power of the rectifying transformer to be decreased, the shapes of the current and voltage curves at the converter inlet and outlet to be improved, transformer losses and voltage crests on the rotor, and inverse voltages on the thyristors to be reduced, etc.