The challenge in controlling a three-phase pulsewidth modulation (PWM) rectifier under balanced conditions arises from the fact that the state-space averaged model reported in literature has a multi-input-multi-output nonlinear structure and furthermore exhibits a nonminimum phase feature. In this paper, a simple single-input-single-output model is constructed by separating the d -axis and the q-axis dynamics through appropriate nonlinear feedforward decoupling while maintaining nearly unity power factor operation. With the proposed model, the nonminimum phase feature inherent in an AC-to-DC rectifier becomes a simple right-half-plane zero appearing in the small-signal control-to-output transfer function. In addition, the model exhibits a close similarity to a DC-DC boost converter under both large-signal and small-signal operating conditions. This makes it possible to extend the system analysis and control design techniques of DC-DC converters to the three-phase PWM rectifier also. The validity of the proposed model has been verified experimentally in the frequency domain under open-loop operation of the PWM rectifier. The usefulness of the model is further demonstrated through closed-loop operation of the rectifier with both voltage mode and inner-current-loop-based schemes.