Partial discharge (PD) is an important index to reflect the running state of cables. According to the characteristics and propagation mechanism of cable partial discharge signal, a cable partial discharge detection and location system based on optical fibre time synchronisation technology and travelling wave double terminal location principle is developed. The system has high detection sensitivity, high reliability, real-time detection, diagnosis and positioning of cable discharge power supply. The experimental results show that the positioning accuracy of the cable partial discharge source can be effectively improved based on the fibre timing and double terminal positioning technology, and the positioning accuracy can reach 1%; the method studied in this paper can meet the requirements of the accurate location of the partial discharge source of the cable, Gil and other equipment.