[disclaimer]The views expressed within are, of course, just my personal interpretation of The 1996 Code - when in doubt, ask
your AHJ![/disclaimer]
Yes, sparkystudent, if you had 24 separate drops, you could have 24 separate disconnects - but you can't have that many drops/laterals to a single structure.
The general instruction in the Code is:
230-2. Number of Services.
(a) Number. A building or other structure served shall be supplied by only one service.
The Code does allow multiple services for Multiple-Occupancy buildings by special permission facing space constraints(230-2 Ex.3), and for Buildings of Large Area that need two or more services (230-2 Ex. 5).
The Code also goes on to restrict the number of Service Entrance Conductor Sets served by Drops or Laterals to one per Conductor Set, unless it is 2 to 6 service disconnecting means grouped at one location (230-40 Ex. 2), which once again seems to stick to the "rule of 6", which is reinforeced by:
230-71 Maximum Number of Disconnects.
(a) General. The service disconnecting means for each service permitted by Section 230-2, or for each set of service-entrance conductors permitted by Section 230-40, Exception No. 1, shall consist of not more than six switches or six circuit breakers mounted in a single enclosure, in a group of separate enclosures, or in or on a switchboard. There shall be no more than six disconnects per service grouped in any one location.
Looking back at the original post, I think the idea of the Code would be for EACH Occupancy to have a SINGLE means of disconnection of ALL ungrounded conductors with a SINGLE motion, no matter how many occupancies are in the structure. If the occupancies share a service drop/lateral, then only six of those occupancies can share that source, and be grouped together in any one location.
It would be ideal to have a structure (building service) disconnect, then occupancy disconnects, then branch circuit disconnects, but it looks like it is allowable to have the building service (if it is six or less occupancies) divided amongst the services for the occupancies, and ultimately disconnected by "six motions or less".
