A novel nonlinear control scheme for disturbance attenuation of structure preserving multimachine power systems based on Hamiltonian theory is proposed in this paper. The proposed control scheme includes two steps: first, the dissipative Hamiltonian realization of structure preserving power system is completed using the singular perturbation approach in which the algebraic equations are considered as a limit of fast dynamics; second, a nonlinear decentralized disturbance attenuation excitation controller is designed without linearization to improve transient stability of power system as well as the robustness with respect to unknown exogenous disturbance in the sense of L(2)-gain. Simulation on a two-area system demonstrates that the proposed scheme can enhance transient stability of the system regardless of the exogenous disturbance.