The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of pre-formed space charges by DC stress on partial discharge(PD) characteristics in XLPE. We have suggested a modified pulsed electro-acoustic(PEA) method and successfully measured both space charge distribution and current simultaneously. It has been demonstrated that the PD patterns are strongly influenced by the pre-formed space charge distributions, which are hardly disappeared up to AC 8㎸ in electrode configuration including air gap between XLPE layer and electrode. From the results, it could be said that the pre-formed space charges by DC stress can play harmful and dangerous roles in insulating system under AC operating voltages because of the field distortion and localization due to the pre-formed space charge.