Lightning continues to possess threats to the reliable supply of electrical energy by causing damages to electrical equipment. Lightning transientcauses outages either by directly hitting electrical equipment or by the electromagnetic interference induced by it upon hitting the ground near to theequipment. An electrical equipment which is witnessing a rise in application over the years are the insulated power cables. Use of these cables are notonly confined to transferring electrical energy over distances but they are also used as transformer winding in a type of transformer pioneered by ABBcalled powerformers. Using XLPE insulated power cables as a case in point, the present study seeks to unravel the trajectory of research undertaken sofar in this area of transient behaviour of insulated power cables against lightning transients. In particular, attention has been focused on the responseof insulated power cables against non-standard lightning transient voltage waveforms. This review brings to the light that while transients responseagainst standard 1.2/50 µs lightning waveform is relatively well studied but more work needs to be further undertaken to fully appreciate the behaviourof insulted power cables against the non-standard lightning transient waveforms which are more prevalent in actual field.