At Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada, Diploma in Powerline Technician is offered as a diploma in Electrical Engineering programme. The programme runs for 2 years, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English.
At a glance
Degree:Diploma
Field:Electrical Engineering
Duration: 2 years
Delivery: On Campus
Language: English
We have no tuition fees on record for this programme yet.
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Information for the 2027/28 academic year · Last reviewed September 2026 ·
Program details
Overview
Overview Learn the essential skills and knowledge to become a Powerline Technician in Ontario. The two-year Powerline Technician Ontario College Diploma program prepares you with the skills you need to succeed as a powerline technician in Ontario. Begin by learning electrical fundamentals and move on to design, planning, construction and maintenance of overhead and underground power systems. You will learn: how to use AutoCAD to design overhead and underground electrical power systems about electrical machinery and metering about street lighting and communications systems to identify, control and eliminate potential health and safety hazards about hoisting, rigging and guying how to solve design problems associated with power transmission and distribution lines about protection relays and fault protection used in power distribution and transmission Starting in the second term, you begin spending one day per week at the Hydro Ottawa partner site located on Bank Street in Ottawa. There you practise climbing, rigging and other hands-on skills you can apply throughout your career. To ensure the safety of all students, you must complete a Working at Heights training session before you begin training at Hydro Ottawa. Students also have the option to gain real-world experience through a paid co-operative education (co-op) work term (see Additional Information for more details). Please note that places in the co-op work term are subject to availability and academic eligibility. Please note admission to the co-op program does not guarantee a co-op placement. Graduates of this program may be able to work as a powerline technician with electric power generation, and transmission and distribution companies, or pursue a career with electrical contractors and public utility commissions.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: Algonquin publishes these requirements for the Sept 2027 - Aug 2028 admissions year on this program's own page; the requirements for Sept 2026 - Aug 2027 are shown separately there and can differ. Program code 1511X03FWO. All applicants must satisfy both College Eligibility and Program Eligibility.
COLLEGE ELIGIBILITY: an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or its equivalent, or mature-student standing - 19 or older, and without a high-school diploma, by the time the program begins. Mature entry may be settled by academic achievement testing, for which a fee is charged.
PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY: Grade 12 English (ENG4C or equivalent); Grade 12 Mathematics (MAP4C or equivalent). No minimum grades are published for these subjects.
Applicants presenting transcripts from outside Canada must document the subjects above and may be asked for evidence of language proficiency; a domestic applicant holding international transcripts must have them assessed by the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS) or World Education Services (WES).
ENGLISH: Academic IELTS 6.5 overall with nothing under 6.0 in any band; or TOEFL iBT 88 overall with 22 in each of reading, listening, speaking and writing where the test was sat before 21 January 2026, or 4.5 overall with 4.5 in each section where it was sat after that date; or a Duolingo English Test score of 120 overall with 120 in Literacy and nothing under 105.
If qualified applicants outnumber the seats, Algonquin selects on proficiency in English and mathematics.
Application Details
Start Date:Intake terms Algonquin lists for this program, read from its own availability table on 6 September 2026: Fall 2026 (AC Day 1 orientation 8 September 2026; Fall term classes start 9 September 2026). Term start dates come from the Registrar's Important Dates page, which also gives 11 January 2027 for the Winter 2027 term and 10 May 2027 for the Spring 2027 term. Availability changes as seats fill and an intake already under way may be closed, so check the program page before applying. Algonquin's academic year runs September to August.
Application Deadline:DOMESTIC APPLICANTS (Canadian citizens and permanent residents). Algonquin publishes no deadline unique to this program; the dates below are the college-wide Ontario colleges cycle and apply to every full-time day program. Applications go through ontariocolleges.ca, where 1 February is the equal consideration date each cycle: apply by then and your application is assessed alongside every other one received by that date, while applications arriving later are handled first-come, first-served for as long as places remain. For entry in Fall 2027 the ontariocolleges.ca application opened on 26 September 2026, colleges may begin issuing offers on 1 November 2026, the equal consideration date is 1 February 2027 and an offer must be accepted by 1 May 2027. The equal consideration date that governed the Fall 2026, Winter 2027 and Spring 2027 intakes was 1 February 2026 and has already passed, so those three starts are now first-come, first-served while seats last. Algonquin flags this program as competitive, which makes the 1 February date matter: qualified applicants who applied by then are rank-ordered on their screening results and offers go down that list, and everyone after it is admitted only while space remains or is waitlisted by date of application.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS. Apply directly to Algonquin on the International Application Form in its International Application Portal (AC360) rather than through ontariocolleges.ca, with a CAD 135 application fee. There is no single fixed international deadline: Algonquin asks you to confirm the program is open before applying, warns that a program's status can change to waitlisted or closed before an admissions officer reviews the file, and publishes a closing-date sheet for each intake. For the Fall 2026 intake that sheet gives this program's own dates: 16 September 2026 is the last day to apply on the International Application Portal and receive an acceptance, and 21 September 2026 is the last day to register.
