As a new control strategy, the Nonlinear PID (NLPID) controller has been introduced successfully in power systems. The controller is free of planting model groundwork during the design procedure and is therefore able to be achieved quite simply. In this paper, a nonlinear PID controller used for a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) unit connected to a power system is proposed. The purpose of designing such a controller is to improve the stability of the power system in a relatively wide operation range. The design procedure takes into account the active and reactive power cooperative control scheme as well as the simple structure so as to be more apt to practical utilization. Simulation is carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed controller in a high order nonlinear power system model under the. MATLAB environment. The results show satisfactory performance and good robustness of the controller. The feasibility of the controller is testified as well.