AVR parameter tuning for voltage control of power system generators has generally been performed with the analytic methods and the simulation methods, which mostly depend on off-line linear mathematical models of excitation control system. However, due to the nonlinear nature of excitation control system, excitation control system performance of the tuned Parameters using the above conventional tuning methods may not be appropriate for some operating conditions. This paper presents an AVR parameter tuning method using actual on-line data of the excitation control system with the parameter optimization technique. As this method utilizes on-line operating data of the target excitation control system not the mathematical model of the system, it can overcome the limitation of model uncertainty Problems in conventional method, and it can tune the AVR parameter set which gives desired performance at the operating conditions. For the verification of proposed tuning method, two case studies with scaled excitation systems and the real-time power system simulator are presented.