An electrical machine with a rotor or the stator including a plurality of discrete field modules, and the other one of the rotor and the stator including a plurality of armature coils connected to different power converters. Each field module includes one or more field coils which can be activated independent of the field coils of the neighbouring field modules. When at least one of the field coils is inactivated, e.g. because of a defect, each of the power converters is allowing less power to pass through when an armature coil connected to it is moving over an inactivated field coil, and more power to pass through when the armature coil connected to it is moving over an activated field coil.