At present, domestic operating companies judge partial discharge conditions of high voltage switchgear by foreign experience, and are lacking in localized switchgear status judging methods. According to the partial discharge data of 30 773 running high voltage switchgears in Guangzhou, a series of novel empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) based on on-site transient earth voltage (TEV) data of high voltage switchgears are proposed. Differences of typical features between local and foreign ECDFs of on-site TEV data are compared. According to the distribution criteria of 25%, 10% and 5%, the foreign thresholds are 19 dB·mV, 29 dB·mV and 35 dB·mV, whereas the local empirical thresholds are 13 dB·mV, 23 dB·mV and 32 dB·mV. The result illustrates that the foreign experience on the thresholds may not be suitable for local judgment. Based on the ECDFs, the suitable local on-site TEV tests criteria and maintenance strategy considering the risk of failure probability and the maintenance cost are concluded, which is more flexible and reliable.