1. A method for modeling an excitation system for a synchronous electrical power generator comprising: selecting a standard exciter model from a plurality of standard excitation system models stored electronically; wherein the selected standard model is selected based on a similarity to the excitation system; collecting data from the excitation system; determining parameter settings for the selected standard model using the collected data; verifying the selected standard model with the parameter settings by comparing an output of the model to a corresponding output of the excitation system; storing electronically the verified selected standard model with the parameter settings, and generating a report of the verified selected standard model with the parameter settings.