Balancing circuits on commercial property

[gearbox]

Hi all,
I need some technical guidance with a problem my boss has thrown at me. In a commercial property 3 phase supply he wants to rebalance the loads on each phase ie phase 1 is drawing 20amps, phase2 is drawing 20amps, phase 3 is drawing 80 amps. he wants to rebalance so they are all around the 40 amp mark and thus "reduce his energy bill"

As far as I can see this will not reduce his energy bill, am I right or have I got it totally wrong?

I know that by rebalancing he may be able to reduce his overall load and therefore drop the supply amperage, therefore cheaper but I don't see how rebalancing reduces the amount he his using.

PS I'm a jet engine technician not an electrician!

 

[RF Lighting]

Are there any maximum demand meters on this property?

 

[gearbox]

Not that I know of.

He wants to carry this out on a number of his properties, but as far as I know they are all simple installations running lighting, signage, sockets etc, nothing fancy, just over the years some phases have been added to and there are big differences in the current draw across the phases. I just can't understand how this will reduce his bill as the overall load stays the same, we;re still using the same amount of electricity.

 

[gearbox]

I have a feeling that he is talking/confusing a power correction factor (or something of that ilk) to reduce his usage, what would that be and how does this work?

Gearbox

 

[Spark123]

Ballancing out the phases won't change the power consumption, a joule is a joule (is one watt second).
Power factor won't really matter if you have a kwh meter. Ballancing across the phases might reduce power factor slightly so the phase angle is similar on all phases.

 

[Lectrician]

PF correction doesn't play a huge part these days anyway.

On one site we maintain, the monthly bills vary from 16k to 26k depending on time of year. They get fined £12 per month for a poor power factor (there is correction in place that was installed in 1990 when it was more of a concern, but this is now not sized to the site).

Having an out of balance supply will not increase your bill.