Abstract: The traditional distribution network planning mainly depends on expanding the scale of the power grid to meet the growth of electricity load. The investment cost of this approach is relatively large and the asset utilization rate is low. This paper presents a new idea of distribution network planning using demand side response resources. Through the case of distribution network planning in a certain region, the traditional planning scheme and the optimization scheme for utilizing demand response are compared. The results show that the integration of demand response resources into distribution network planning can reduce the distribution network distribution load and reduce the power system's demand for power distribution capacity, thereby effectively reducing power grid investment.