This thesis discusses applications of phasor measurement units to power system monitoring and synchronous generator modeling. Adjustments to a previously developed PMU placement algorithm are described which observe generator and tie line flows explicitly and reduces the number of PMUs required for a system, still observing the major dynamic components of a system. This adjusted methodology leaves some buses unobserved. A method for estimating the state of the unobserved region is developed based on using constant admittance or constant current load models. These models are accurate for a small neighborhood around the operating point when they were calculated. To determine the maximum error expected for any given system estimate, an equation relating the maximum error in the voltages to the maximum change in load power is derived. Once the issue of power system monitoring has been presented, the application of PMUs to the synchronous generator modeling is explored. This thesis deals with the on-line identification of the generator transient model using a recursive version of the generalized least squares algorithm. Simulations have been performed to demonstrate the validity and difficulties with these methods.