Large energy loss caused by mismatching between the installed power and demanded power, as well as the wasted potential energy, is a serious problem for a hydraulic press. In order to reduce the energy loss, an energy-saving method by balancing the load of operations of presses was proposed based on the analysis of energy flow characteristics of the hydraulic system. In the method, the motor pumps in the drive system are shared in different time by a unit composed of two hydraulic presses so that the energy loss caused by unloading operations can be reduced. Furthermore, these two presses are combined, and the excessive energy from one press can serve as the input energy to the other one during some operations to improve the energy efficiency of the drive system, and the potential energy can be utilized directly. Meanwhile, operation durations of these combined presses are optimized for coordination of working processes. The method was applied to two hydraulic presses in a tandem line, and the energy consumption was obtained by quantifying the characteristics of conversion components. Results indicate that for a single press, 36% of electrical energy can be saved in the investigated forming processes.