In a wireless sensor network, some sensor nodes will consume their energy at a much higher rate and die much faster if the energy dissipation of nodes is unbalanced. Accordingly, the network will lose its ability prematurely. A novel clustering data aggregation algorithm is proposed to resolve the problem of unbalanced energy dissipation among nodes during data gathering in clustering wireless sensor networks. The algorithm divided the network into rectangular grids with unequal size and made cluster heads rotate among the nodes of each grid respectively in terms of residual energy. A grid whose cluster heads consumed more energy is bigger and has more nodes to take part in the cluster head rotation for sharing energy load. By this way, the algorithm is able to balance the energy dissipation of nodes. In addition, considering that wireless sensor networks are energy-restricted because the nodes are equipped with limited and non-rechargeable energy resources, the algorithm adopted a series of measures to save energy. The results of simulation show that the algorithm is able to achieve better performance in aspects of efficiency of energy usage, lifetime of network and balanced extent of energy dissipation.