In order to prolong the wireless sensor network lifetime, an novel energy balanced distributed clustering (EBDC) algorithm based on virtual grid is proposed. EBDC has three obvious features: Firstly, it adopts virtual grid ideas to divide each cluster into M×N square area and select a working node in each grid to reduce redundant information and save energy. Secondly, cluster head is distributed generated according to the probability which includes the residual energy, history sending packets and so on among the working nodes in each grid. Last, it improves energy utility by changing the activity of wireless communication module of sensor nodes, energy model and state transition of sensor nodes. Simulation results show that, compared with UVDC and LEACH, EBDC significantly balances the node’s average energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime