In this paper, a nonlinear robust control approach is applied to design a controller for the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM). A robust control dynamic model of STATCOM in a one-machine, infinite-bus system is established with consideration of the torque disturbance acting on the rotating shaft of the generator set and the disturbance to the output voltage of STATCOM. A novel recursive approach is utilized to construct the energy storage function of the system such that the solution to the disturbance attenuation control problem is acquired, which avoids the difficulty involved in solving the Hamilton-Jacobi-Issacs (HJI) inequality. Sequentially, the nonlinear disturbance attenuation control strategy of STATCOM is obtained. Simulation results demonstrate that STATCOM with the proposed controller can more effectively improve the voltage stability, damp the oscillation, and enhance the transient stability of power systems compared to the conventional PI+PSS controller.