A rotating field machine (200) including a stator (140) and a rotor (150) are provided. In particular, a dual-winding rotating field machine (200) in which the stator (140) includes two separate windings can be provided. In one example implementation, the stator (140) can include an excitation winding (220) configured to control an excitation current and a power winding (230) configured to control power flow to an electrical system. The dual-winding rotating field machine (200) can further include a starting mode and a generating mode. During the starting mode, both the excitation winding (220) and the power winding (230) can be coupled to one or more switching power converters (170). During the generating mode, the power winding (230) can be coupled to a variable frequency bus and the power converter (170) can be used to manage excitation power only.