Coverage is one of the most important issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). However, full coverage only can be achieved when surplus mobile sensors contribute a coverage area larger than the hole size. When there is no surplus mobile sensor to cover a big hole, previous studies have utilized mobile sensors by moving the hole from one location to another, therefore achieving temporal full‐coverage, where each location on the monitoring region has been ever covered by mobile sensors during a fixed time interval. However, with only some mobile sensors participating in the hole‐movement task, this results in an energy‐imbalance WSN. This paper considers a mobile WSN that contains a big hole where there exists no redundant mobile sensor to heal the hole. Three distributed algorithms, called Basic, Forward‐Only, and Any‐Direction movement mechanisms, are proposed to achieve the purpose of temporal full‐coverage in a way that the total energy consumption is minimized or that the energy consumption of all mobile sensors that participate in the hole‐movement task are balanced. Simulation results reveal that the proposed hole‐movement mechanisms enhance the coverage of WSNs and balance the energy consumption of mobile sensor nodes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.