This article presents the possibility of extending the service life of XLPE insulation based on high voltage cables by blending the optimum concentration of the aromatic voltage stabilizer. The insulation performance of XLPE is analyzed by adding the 0.5, 1, and 3 wt% of 3-aminobenzoic acid voltage stabilizer. The investigated insulation properties include the DC step-by-step breakdown to estimate the life exponent, space charge, DC conductivity, surface potential decay, dielectric loss, and dielectric constant measurements. The results illustrate that the 1 wt% voltage stabilizer addition increases the life exponent from 10 up to 15, which is highly suitable for the high voltage cables. Moreover, it exhibits the negligible space charge accumulation and the least electrical field distortion inside the insulation bulk. It also exhibits the lower DC conductivity by one order of magnitude comparing to the pure XLPE. The highest bandgap value of 1 wt% addition further supports its better insulating properties. Furthermore, the dielectric measurements show that the XLPE with 1 wt% voltage stabilizer exhibits the least dielectric constant and dielectric loss. The differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis results show that the thermal properties are significantly improved after the voltage stabilizer addition. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:717-731, 2020. (c) 2020 Society of Plastics Engineers