This paper presents design and analysis of an HID lamp ballast for a fast turn on characteristics and stable operation. It produces a high open circuit voltage for the ignition and it is controlled to supply effectively the power required to shorten the warm-up period after the breakdown. The lamp modeling by empirical data is presented. It is very effective in the designing of the control loop in the steady-state operating region. A stable operation of the lamp power regulation in the steady state is achieved, which is crucial for the long life time and constant light output. Stability analysis of the system is performed and the results are verified through various simulation results and the hardware experiments.