To provide a decision support for power cable condition based maintenance

a model for comprehensive evaluating operation condition of XLPE power cables is constructed based on modified radar chart theory. By obtaining the cable characteristic variables through preventive electrical experiments

on-line monitoring technology

and records of equipment defects and operation maintenance

a comprehensive evaluation indexes system of cable operation state is established. The improved analytic hierarchy process（AHP）method is used to obtain the weight for each condition index

the corresponding sector areas of the evaluation indexes are ranked

and their angles are distributed. Consequently

formulae for comprehensive evaluation of XLPE power cable operation condition and for index attribute sensitivity analysis are derived. Quantitative operation condition evaluation of a XLPE power cable is conducted with the proposed model through an actual example

and the result is compared with that of the existing methods. It is concluded that the proposed model is superior to the existing methods.