In 2001, the City issued a competitive Request for Tender to select a partner which would finance, design, build, own and operate a beneficial use facility. Although the City had considered building a power plan itself, it decided to solicit private proposals in order to evaluate a broader array of project concepts and maximize the economic, environmental, and social benefits to the City. Five proposals were received, each based on a different approach to landfill gas utilization. The concepts submitted using the gas to dry sea urchin shells to make fertilizer, upgrading the gas to pipeline quality, and direct use in a cement kiln. Following a detailed and structured proposal evaluation and negotiation process, a 20-year Public-Private Partnership contract, based on the most highly evaluated proposal, was approved by the City Council in February 2002.
Under the approved PPP structure, the City continues to operate the landfill, and a 2.9 kilometre pipeline was constructed by the private partner to take the gas from the landfill to a nearby agricultural complex, where they built the cogeneration power plant. The private partner selected by the City designed, financed and constructed the cogeneration plant, which uses the landfill gas as fuel to generate enough electricity (7.4 MW per year), to supply 4,000 to 5,000 local homes. The power is sold by the private partner to a provincial utility, BC Hydro.
Construction of the power plant was completed in September 2003, and it was operating at full capacity by November of that year. (Initial capacity was 5.55 MW per year, increasing to 7.4 MW per year with the installation of a fourth engine in late 2004.)
Waste heat from the power generation process is recovered as hot water, which is sold by the private partner to a large (32 acre) tomato greenhouse complex adjacent to the plant, where the water is used for heating purposes. Using the landfill gases in this manner, rather than burning them, results in further reduction of greenhouse gases, equating to the removal of 6,000 vehicles from Canada's roads.