postes force

22:34 Feb 15, 2017
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Construction / Civil Engineering / Construction of metro tunnel and associated structures
French term or phrase: postes force
En plus de la trappe d’accès secours, le puits possède une trappe matériel (3,0 x 2,0 m), une grille de prise et refoulement d’air au-dessus du local LCVC (12 m²) ainsi que des trémies de prise et refoulement d’air pour les Postes Force et le SAS.

This concerns the construction of a structure enabling the entry of tunnel boring machines to drill a tunnel
Stephen Emm
Local time: 16:48


Summary of answers provided
4electrical substation
Nathalie Stewart
3motive power substation
Tony M


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


31 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
electrical substation


Explanation:
RATP
Postes Eclairage et Force (PEF) et Postes Force (PF)
http://centraledesmarches.com/marches-publics/Paris-RATP-Dep...

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimentation_électrique_du_mét...

http://www.stif.org/IMG/pdf/Deliberation_no2011-0773_schema_...
(Glossary starts on p. 200)
p. 211 Poste force

http://pluenligne.paris.fr/plu/sites-plu/site_statique_37/do...
p. 21 Poste force
Ils sont les équipements qui permettent de transformer la haute tension alternative (15 000 V) en basse tension destinée à alimenter les équipements de type courant faible du tunnel (400/250 V).

> EN: electrical substation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_substation

Also possible:
power transformer station
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/879811/

Nathalie Stewart
France
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Tony M: Runs the risk of under-translation, since it misses out the key term 'force' /No, that's the whole point: your own ref. distinsguishes between 'force' and 'éclairage', the difference is VITAL. 'electrical' is arguably redundant anyway.
7 hrs
  -> I think 'electrical' is sufficient to convey 'force' + the purpose of an electrical substation is to transform voltage + we have the exact definition of "poste force" above (a transformer of high-voltage alternating current into low voltage current).
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
poste force
motive power substation


Explanation:
The use of 'force' specifically refers to high-power, 3-phase electricity, and given that a distinction is made from other types of substation by e.g. RATP (as per Nathalie's refs.), I do think it is important in some way to acknowledge this distinction.
I am making a leap in assuming that this particualr 'force' is referring specifically to 'motive power', but generally in this sort of context that is what it will be, and the historic reason for using the word 'force'; if you have further context that suggests this would NOT be the case, then I think you DO still need to find some way of translating that notion — perhaps 'high-power substation'?
It's arguable, of course, if 'substation' is really the right term to use; normally, it stands for 'poste de transformation', in which case, a more pertinent translation here might be simply '... transformer', since this isn't going to be necessarily quite a classic 'substation' in the usual sense of the term.

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Note added at 10 heures (2017-02-16 09:20:40 GMT)
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One of Nathalie's refs. appears contradictory, but sadly I can't currently access that document to check:

http://pluenligne.paris.fr/plu/sites-plu/site_statique_37/do...

As quoted by Nathalie:

" Poste force
Ils sont les équipements qui permettent de transformer la haute tension alternative (15 000 V) en basse tension destinée à alimenter les équipements de type courant faible du tunnel (400/250 V)."

Now that is at odds with the usual senses of 'force' (= high power) and 'courants faibles' ( = low power) — but the surrounding text may explain this. For the moment, I rest mistrustful of the usage in this particular instance.

Do note that 'postes force' is only a subset of all 'postes' = '(electrical) substations' — hence why it is important to render the notion of 'force' specifically here.



Tony M
France
Local time: 17:48
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 1250
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