The increment of hydrogen demand in oil refineries motivates the industries to optimize the hydrogen network and rationally use hydrogen resources for energy conservation and cost reduction. In the hydrogen distribution networks，in addition to the consumption of hydrogen，the foremost consumption of energy is compression power. In order to unify and optimize the consumption of hydrogen and compression power，“exergy standard” is proposed to design and optimize the hydrogen distribution network. The consumption of hydrogen utility and compression power are converted to exergy and the total exergy consumption is utilized to evaluate the hydrogen network. In addition，a network evolution strategy is also utilized to reduce the number of compressors effectively，which can guarantee the optimal energy performance and economical benefit. A literature case is solved to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.