This paper deals with the design and test of a contactless capacitive power converter operating at a frequency of 1 MHz, intended to supply 1kW of power to excite the wound rotor of a 20kVA synchronous machine. To verify the validity of the concept, a first prototype was built by using surface-mounted capacitor grounded on the structure of a 1MHz Class E resonant power converter. Then, a more representative capacitive contactless coupler was designed and implemented. Comparisons between simulation and experimental results have shown the limits of the proposed contactless power transmission. Special attention was paid on losses and efficiency which are crucial for this application