Abstract:With the acceleration of urbanization,a large number of urban overhead lines have been gradually replaced by cables as a result of the " Road Improvement" project. Especially in the last decade,a large number of cables have been installed in power distribution network. The urgency of detecting insulation defects in running cables is also increasing. A comprehensive utilization of the existing online temperature measurement,transient earth voltages ( TEV) and damped oscillatory wave test system ( OWTS) is proposed,which can effectively detect,diagnose and locate the insulation defects of cable accessories .