The invention discloses a high-voltage cabinet cable storehouse protection system and method based on photothermal early warning and arc transfer. The system comprises an infrared temperature measuring sensor, an arc ultraviolet sensor, an intelligent protection module and three quick grounding switches. The infrared temperature measuring sensor and the arc ultraviolet sensor are arranged in the high-voltage cabinet cable storehouse, so as to realize the monitoring of the temperature and the arc signal of the three-phase cable head; and the intelligent protection module judges the fault phaseand introduces the abnormal bus voltage signal to judge the temperature, arc light and bus voltage comprehensively, when it is judged that the single-phase arc grounding fault occurs in the cable storehouse, the intelligent protection module sends a closing instruction to close the grounding switch of the fault phase.