A voltage regulator with an adaptive field discharge control system may use the rate of change of the POR voltage, the rate of change of the output current and rate of change of the field current, or any combination of these, as an input. The adaptive field discharge control system may process the inputs, identify an operating condition, such as unbalanced load, overcurrent and overload, and compare reference setpoints against that condition. Conventional field control circuits may be triggered by a fixed POR voltage setpoint for all operating conditions. In addition, conventional field control circuits may trigger field discharge to turn on and off continuously during systems oscillations. To avoid these issues, the adaptive field control circuit of the present invention may include a variable POR voltage setpoint, based upon one or more of the rate of change in the POR voltage, the DC bus voltage, or the percentage of unbalanced load. This invention can be extended for any More Electric Vehicle applications.