Service equipment in 6 separate panels?

I’m going through the NHIE exam manual and it says that the service equipment may be located in up to 6 separate panels and the NEC does not require that they be located together.

I don’t understand this. Does it mean that there would be one service drop but 6 different sets of service entrance conductors coming off the meter? Where would the main bonding jumper and the GEC be? Or would there be 6 bonding jumpers and 6 separate electrodes all bonded together?

Would it be appropriate to make any recommendation or should multiple services just be identified in the report as unusual but acceptable?

That would be for something like an apartment building with 5 apartments and a public panel. Each is a service.

The services need to be grouped .

As Jim stated you can have up to 6 service disconnects but they must be grouped together in the same location. The service disconnects can be main circuit breakers in 6 separate panels.

As already mentioned. It is usually an array of meters in one group that are connected to the main service entrance cable by means of bus bars. The whole thing is grounded then. If it is less than 6 units I don’t think a main switch is needed, if more than 6 then it is needed. From there separate feeds to the various sub or distribution panels are run and neutrals are isolated and grounds are bonded.

Kenton, is the above bolded actually what the National Home Inspector Exam says?