In this study, the
objective
is to improve the criteria used for statistical comparison of the VLF tanδ (TD) database and failure rate according to water-tree degradation in underground distribution power cables. The aging condition of the KEPCO criteria is divided into 6 levels using the Weibull distribution, and the “failure imminent” condition is quantified by using the statistical end-point of the lifetime parameter of the VLF big-data group obtained from KEPCO. Moreover, new criteria with a 2-dimensional combination of TD, DTD, and a statistical normalized factor are suggested. These criteria exhibit high reproducibility for the detection of cables in an imminent failure state. Consequently, it is expected that the adoption of the extended VLF-2019 criteria will reduce the asset management cost of cable replacement compared to the VLF-2012 criteria of KEPCO.