This paper proposes an energy management strategy and adaptive control for superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) in a distribution power system with a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) farm. Application of the SMES system can decrease the output power fluctuations of PV system effectively. Also, it can control the real and reactive powers corresponding to the scheduled reference values with adequate converter capacity, which are required at a steady-state operating point. Therefore, the adaptive control strategy for SMES plays a key role in improving the system stability when the PV generation causes uncertain variations due to weather conditions. The performance of proposed energy management strategy and control method for the SMES is then evaluated with several case studies based on the PSCAD/EMTDC$^{(R)}$ simulation.