This type of failure is common in industrial and commercial electrical systems and should never be ignored because it can lead to overheating, downtime, equipment damage, or fire risk. 🔍 Possible Causes: • Loose terminal connection causing high resistance heating • Improper cable. A pungent, burnt smell emanating from inside a distribution cabinet often indicates a safety hazard in the power transmission link. This phenomenon is usually not caused by a sudden short circuit. Today's maintenance activity revealed a damaged/burnt cable termination inside a distribution panel. This in turn will lead to lower operating costs. As an example, the final result of a cable failure may be that the insulation failed and the cable flashed over. The. Many of these cable systems are ageing due to environmental effects and stresses as a consequence of failures of cables are becoming common. These facilities include 110kV overhead lines, 110kV/SN substations, MV overhead and cable lines, MV/LV overhead and.