The term "load inbalance" is most commonly used in three phase systems where ideally the currents on all three phase/outer/hot conductors should add to zero, ha

The term "load inbalance" is most commonly used in three phase systems where ideally the currents on all three phase/outer/hot conductors should add to zero, having no current on the neutral conductor. Having significantly different loading on the three phases will create changes in voltages on the individual conductors and generally not make efficient use of transmission capacity. Interestingly, having a lot of switching power supplies with poor power factor correction on a three phase network (e.g. in an office building) will also create currents on the neutral, but with three times the network frequency (and harmonics), as during one cycle, the current for the peaks caused by... +L1 -L3 +L2 -L1 +L3 -L2 ...will be returned.