The scope of the following paper is to revise the model of the well-co
oled/ill-cooled transition in cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs), int
roducing the concept of a transition regime where the energy margin de
creases from high to low (ideally zero) values gradually. This descrip
tion is arrived at using intuitive power and energy balances to produc
e simple expressions involving only the geometry and operating conditi
ons of the cable. These expressions will be translated into operating
limits on the cable space current density and will be checked against
numerical experiments.