When the Palo Alto City Council named climate change one of its top priorities a year ago, it approved an ambitious list of green programs that it wanted the city to achieve before 2023 came to an end.

But as council members prepare to reconvene at Mitchell Park Community Center on Jan. 29 for their next priority-setting retreat, they are facing an inconvenient truth: More than half of the climate programs on the city's to-do list for 2023 are either behind schedule or have completely dropped off the list.

In addition, the city has fallen well short of its goal of installing 1,000 heat pump water heaters. By the end of 2023, the city had completed a little over 200 installations, according to Utilities Department staff.

Of the council's four 2023 priorities – climate change, housing, economic recovery and community health and safety – sustainability ranks last when it comes to completed achievements, a new report from the city shows. The city has completed 35% of its programs on climate change and the natural environment, while another 10% are on track.

At the same time, 45% of the programs are behind schedule and 10% are either on hold or have been dropped. The reasons for delays vary from one program to another, but common factors include staff capacity, supply chain shortages and time lags in finding contractors to carry out the approved tasks.

Among the projects that are now behind schedule are two complex Utilities Department multi-year efforts to upgrade the city's electric grid and to deploy advanced metering infrastructure (often referred to as "smart meters") throughout the city.

While the deployment of smart meters is advancing, to date the city has only converted about 10,000 of 75,000 electric, gas and water meters. Staff now believes the residential deployment will be completed by the end of 2024. Because of supply chain issues, commercial smart meters are now scheduled to be installed by mid-2025, according to an update by David Yuan, strategic business manager in the Utilities Department.

The grid modernization, which city officials see as a key requisite to their electrification, is also behind schedule. While the city's objective was to begin construction in 2023, the only component that advanced was a partnership with Tesla to upgrade transformers near the company's new engineering headquarters on Page Mill Road. Tesla is footing half the bill for the $24-million project.

The rest of the modernization effort remains in the design stage, with Utilities Department staff now looking for ways to align this project with the expansion of municipal fiber. While city officials are planning to begin major construction on grid modernization this spring, the exact start is "dependent upon the acquisition of materials that have been impacted by high demand and supply chain shortages," Assistant Utilities Director Jonathan Abendschein wrote in his update on the project.

Despite the various delays and complications, some of the city's green efforts are now starting to gain momentum. According to Christine Luong, the city had completed a total of 232 hot pump water heater installations by Jan. 18, which includes 176 that were completed through the Utilities Department's full-service program and 46 that were completed through the rebate program.

The city also has 53 installations planned for customers who have already signed contracts; those are in the process of getting permitted and scheduled, Luong said. If these are included in the numbers, the total will be 285.

City Manager Ed Shikada acknowledged at the Jan. 16 council meeting that the effort to replace gas-fueled water heaters with all-electric heat pump water heaters took longer than expected.

"It's fair to say it did take a few months for our staff and contractors to get ramped up and to hit a pace of being able to turn around a request and expressions of interest in the heat pump water heaters," Shikada said. "Now they're definitely hitting their stride."

Shikada is himself participating in the city's program, which includes a "full service" option in which the city arranges all the contract work and allows customers to pay for most of the work through on-bill fees over two years. Between the city's program and state incentives for heat pump water heater installations, the value of his installation dropped from $7,500 to $1,400, he said. Shikada said he paid $200 out of pocket and will pay the rest on his utility bills.

Vice Mayor Ed Lauing also had a heat pump water heater installed through the city's program. He said the installation required complicated electrical work under the house, which brought the estimate to $8,500. He said he paid about $2,000 and is taking advantage of the $1,200 loan that will be repaid through utility bills.

According to Abendschein, the heat pump water heater program has seen high interest from residents. However, high turnover of staff at the city and at both of the companies that the city contracted with to operate the program made it difficult to process all the signups, he wrote in a report.

By the end of the year, the Utilities Department had cleared its backlog of signups and ramped up its outreach, he said. Even so, the current pace of enrollment of five to 15 signups per week remains below the 20-signup rate that the city would need to reach its annual goal of 1,000 installations per year.

Some residents are urging more aggressive action. Matt Schlegel told the council at the Jan. 16 meeting that while the recent uptick in heat pump water heater installations is good news, the city remains well behind its goals and should do more to make sure that residents whose gas water heaters break switch to electric.

"Every water heater that gets replaced with another gas water heater locks in years more of burning fossil fuels and emitting the CO2 that is blanketing the earth trapping heat," Schlegel said.

Other Palo Alto residents are urging the city to set a deadline for phasing out gas appliances entirely. Members of the groups 350 Silicon Valley and Palo Alto Student Climate Coalition addressed the council on Jan. 22 and urged members to take this step, which they argued is critical to meeting Palo Alto's goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by 2030, with 1990 as the baseline.

Susan Chamberlain, a member of the local 350 chapter, presented the council with a petition that was signed by 783 residents, calling for the elimination of the gas utility.

"There is momentum," Chamberlain said. "Lots of wind at your back and much public support in the community for you to take this step."