How to assess the reliability of the smart electricity energy meters before batch installation has become an important issue. Typical failure features and the shortage of the reliability characteristic index used by electricity energy meters were expatiated. Starting from the environment plane and task plane, the check and test items, main defects and sensitive stresses were discussed and analyzed. A recommended reliability assessment scheme for electricity energy meter was put forward. The results of an actual assessment case proved the effectiveness of the scheme, which put a road for quantized reliability assessment.