At present, China's watt hour meter industry is in the replacement stage of smart meters. With the development of China's smart grid, as an important part of the smart grid, the demand for smart meters has greatly increased. The smart meter proportion has gradually become the mainstream in the State Grid and the South China Power Grid bidding. According to IHS iSuppli, China shipped 110.6 million meters in 2012, including 98.5 million smart meters. Taking the State Grid as an example, the smart meters tendered by the State Grid in 2012 accounted for more than 90% of the total bidding volume. Smart meters have become the mainstream of China's electricity market.


Domestic smart meter manufacturers mainly participate in the bidding of the State Grid and the Southern Power Grid, and the State Grid accounts for the vast majority of China's power grid construction investment. According to the 2010 State Grid plan, 222 million smart meters will be installed by 2014 to achieve "full coverage, full collection, full cost control" for all users in the direct supply and direct management area. By the end of 2013, the State Grid had tendered 258 million meters, of which about 246 million were smart meters. According to the State Grid's 2013 Social Responsibility Letter, the State Grid has installed 182 million smart meters, and the electricity information acquisition system covers 191 million households. In 2013, the number of bidding for smart meters was 62.16 million, including 55.41 million single-phase smart meters and 6.75 million three-phase smart meters.


At present, the domestic smart meter belongs to the AMR meter, only one-way operation, to meet the needs of remote automatic meter reading, is a smart meter in the lower degree of intelligence products. In the future, intelligent meters will not only be able to implement remote management and charge control in the control and settlement center, but also can display power information, meteorological information and other information. It is a two-way multi-purpose network terminal to form an AMI system. In addition, with the gradual development of green energy towards distributed, smart meters also need to meet a large number of green energy net metering needs. In the future, smart meters will be able to manage and control household and public utilities anywhere, providing a variety of value-added services. It can be expected that the smart meter industry will undergo several generations, and the future growth will be sustainable.