Abstract: Bionic sensing technology has been widely used in power equipment status monitoring and fault diagnosis. The electrical olfaction which integrates micro-gas sensors with intelligent algorithms can effectively assess the type and severity of faults of power equipment by detecting characteristic decomposition gases from insulating media. This technology is gaining increasing attention due to its low cost, small size, and high integration capability. Consequently, this work focused on the background of SF₆ gas-insulated equipment, air-insulated equipment, transformers, power cables, and energy storage batteries, and summarized the current research status of electric olfactory sensing technology. Firstly, the gas production characteristics and underlying mechanisms of the state deterioration for different power equipment were summarized, and the similarities and differences of characteristic gases were analyzed. Thereafter, the research progress and improvement direction of olfactory-sensitive materials for different characteristic gases were summarized. Then, the packaging differences among ceramic, flexible, and silicon substrates were compared, and the direction of chip-based and integrated olfactory-sensitive component were proposed. Finally, the signal processing algorithms based on feature engineering and data-driven were discussed, and the application potential of edge computing technology in electric olfactory intelligent algorithm was pointed out. This paper provides a detailed summary of the principles and key technologies of electric olfactory, emphasizing the potential for technological innovation in gas analysis methods, gas-sensitive material development, sensor-fabrication techniques, and application of intelligent algorithms, and it guides the intelligent development of power equipment.