Abstract Urban distribution network planning is an electric power grid scheme to distribute and supply electricity to a city, in order to meet its requirements of economic development and power demands. The planning includes the contents of load forecasting, power balance, grid planning and planning effect analysis. In this paper, the target grid is firstly determined, and then the distribution network planning for middle years is obtained. The used method combines artificial schemes and computer-aided calculation and analysis. The real example shows the effectiveness and practicability of the approach.