Abstract: Polyurethane foams have been in use for decades by the industry. The use of polyurethane foams is common in low voltage switchgears, but few applications are reported in medium and high-voltage (HV) systems. At high voltages, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and/or nitrogen (N₂) is applied in hollow insulation systems like Optical Instrument Transformers (OIT) to avoid internal flashover. Firmly sealing these gases within the insulating system over a long period of time as well as over variable temperatures is difficult. As a result of this sealing problem, gas pressure drops, moisture may penetrate into the insulation medium, and the dielectric strength of the insulation system decreases. This work proposes the use of polyurethane foams to fill the hollow spaces in insulation systems. Much of the research effort focused on the demonstration of the dielectric strength of three different foams which are investigated using alternating current (AC) and lightning impulse voltages under different humidity and temperature conditions. It is shown that polyurethane foams have 2-3 times better dielectric strength than air. The breakdown strength decreases with the thickness of the foam; temperature and humidity have negligible effects on the breakdown voltage. The foam breakdown stress depends on the void size and distribution. The high density foams, with smaller void diameters, have higher breakdown stress. As the breakdown mechanism within polyurethane foam was explained, a hypothesis was developed to describe the mechanism that leads to electrical breakdown of polyurethane foams. Partial discharge measurements revealed that electrical breakdown of polyurethane foam is not the result of progress of discharges in time, as in other polymeric materials; discharges are very low and increase immediately before breakdown, suddenly increasing the electric field and producing an avalanche. Therefore, the mechanism that leads to breakdown in polyurethane foam is an avalanche breakdown mechanism. A computer program is developed with COMSOL Multiphysics Program controlled by MATLAB script to simulate the avalanche breakdown. There is an agreement between the simulation and experiment results therefore simulation results proved the feasibility of the avalanche progress.