The development of electronic energy meters in China began in the 1990s. In 1993, China's first electronic energy meter was created. In 1994, China successfully developed its first three-phase, fully electronic, multi-functional energy meter; that same year, Wisun Group launched a Class 0.5S three-phase multi-functional energy meter. In 1997, domestically produced electronic energy meters were deployed and put into operation on the grid of the Jakarta Electric Company in Indonesia.
Starting in 2001, China began replacing the inductive mechanical meters located within substations with fully electronic, multi-functional energy meters. By 2004, Wisun had established an annual production capacity of 500,000 three-phase multi-functional energy meters. After 2005, fully electronic energy meters experienced rapid growth, with their functionalities becoming increasingly diverse and their scope of application continuously expanding. Around 2008, smart grid construction emerged as a strategic objective for global power grid development; China's State Grid Corporation proposed the concept of a "Strong Smart Grid" and fully initiated research into technical standards for smart energy meters. That same year, the Class 0.1S multi-functional energy meter-designed for use at grid interconnection points-was introduced.
In September 2009, the State Grid Corporation publicly released a series of standards for smart energy meters; in December of that same year, the first unified tender for these meters was conducted [6]. In December 2017, Hunan Province achieved full coverage of smart energy meters across its grid. Since 2020, in accordance with the requirements of the upgrade and retrofit plan for metering devices at non-centrally dispatched power plants within the spot trading market, the energy meters located at power plant generator terminals and at grid interconnection points have begun to be replaced with the 2020-edition smart meters .