Power quality is one of the major concerns among consumers and electric utility companies. CUPS (custom power systems) devices are used to improve the quality of power and enhance the reliability of the power supply in the distribution networks. The DVR (dynamic voltage restorer) is an important CUPS device used to mitigate voltage sag/swell and imbalances. Various control techniques have been implemented to control the DVR, among which the PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller is dominant because of its model independent property and its error driven technique. In this paper, a new controller based on the ADRC (active disturbance rejection control) concept is developed, and its performance is compared to that of the PID controller. The model of the DVR and its ADRC and PID controllers were developed under the MATLAB (matrix laboratory)/Simulink © environment. The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the ADRC over the PID controller.