In this paper, an enhanced control scheme for a pulse‐width‐modulated (PWM) voltage source converter (VSC) is proposed for a DC zonal shipboard power system (SPS). First, the main design parameters of VSC such as switching frequency and DC‐link capacitance are investigated and optimized for the SPS application. Then, the nonideal operating conditions such as sudden load change, sudden supply voltage change, and unbalanced supply voltage are considered. To address these issues, the VSC control strategy has been enhanced by (i) adopting a different PWM strategy that changes the carrier frequency under nonideal operating conditions, (ii) adding a negative‐sequence controller, and (iii) implementing an instantaneous phase locked loop (PLL). The results show that the proposed controller shows indeed a satisfactory performance for this specific application and it can also operate at unity displacement power factor under nonideal conditions.