Abstract:The existence and accumulation of space charge within the insulating material poses great threat to the conductance characteristics, aging and breakdown of the polymer power cables.A new space charge measurement device is manufactured with a pulsed electro-acoustic method.The device can be used for measuring the space charge distribution in the cable insulation under DC high voltage and AC high voltage because its high-voltage pulse system can measure the phase of highvoltage.The system is used to test a new domestic XLPE cable and a XLPE cable which has been run over some years.In the case of the same test conditions, the space charge accumulation in the cable which has been operated for many years is significantly more than that in the new one.