Many nonlinear controllers for the power system are based on nonlinear models involving the power angle as an element of the state, and therefore the reference value for the power angle is needed. As this reference value is not generally available, it is difficult to apply such nonlinear control methods in practice. To deal with this problem, we present an input-output feedback linearizing control scheme by selecting the output as a combination of the squared voltage and the relative frequency. It is shown that the internal dynamics are locally stable with controllable damping, and that the frequency remains bounded for all time. Simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.