ECMPS Support

EPA Headquarters Closed on Tuesday, February 9, 2010

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, all Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are again closed for Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

This means that the U.S. EPA Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) office will be closed, and personnel you are used to contacting will be out of the office.

EPA Headquarters Closed on Monday, February 8, 2010

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, today, Monday, February 8, 2010, all Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are closed.

This means that the U.S. EPA Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) office will be closed, and personnel you are used to contacting will be out of the office.

New FAQs on Retired Units and Shutdown and Stored Units

Many of you have asked how you should handle retired units and units which are to be shutdown and stored. (The latter category of units are desiginated as Long Term Cold Storage or LTCS.) To address your questions, the technical support team has added two FAQs.

For more information on how to report a retired unit, which is a unit that has permanently ceased operation, read the FAQ "How do I retire a unit?"

For information on how to report a LTCS unit, which is a unit has been shutdown and put into storage, you should read the FAQ "How do I put a unit into Long Term Cold Storage?".

If you have further questions about how to report either of these types of units, please contact ECMPS Technical Support.

Labels: FAQ

A Second Service Pack for 2009 Q4 Will Be Released

Since the release of a service pack last week, two additional issues have been identified which will be addressed by a second service pack. The first issue to be addressed will correct a problem that only affects shared database users. The problem is that, in some cases, shared database users are not able to complete the update from the 2009 Q3 version to the 2009 Q4 version. The update skips immediately from the 2009 Q3 version to the 2009 Q4 Service Pack 1 version. This does not provide a complete update to the latest version.

The second issue is related to Data and Maps data. This bug is preventing the processing of the the Data and Maps data on the EPA Host System after the data have been received by the EPA Host System.

Both of these bugs are described on the Known Issues page.

Because of the nature of these two bugs, a second, mandatory service pack will be released on Wednesday, January 13, 2010.

After the release of the service pack, the next time you log in to the EPA Host System, you will be prompted to update your Client Tool. The 2009 Q4 Service Pack 2, as it is being called, will update both the 2009 Q4 and the 2009 Q4 Service Pack 1 versions. If you have yet to update to the 2009 Q4 version (from the 2009 Q3 version), you will first be prompted to complete that update, and then you will go through only one additional update to SP2.

If you are a shared database user on the 2009 Q3 version, after your shared database has been updated to the 2009 Q4 version, you will be prompted to update to the 2009 Q4 Service Pack 2 version.

Because SP2 does not contain any Client Tool database changes, shared database users who have had their database updated to the 2009 Q4 version will only need to update their Client Tool.

Any questions about the update path should be directed to technical support.

Labels: Release Schedule Information

Service Pack Needed to Correct Submission Bugs

Two bugs have been found in the 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool which affect the submission of data. Both of these bugs are described on the Known Issues page.

Because of the nature of these two bugs, a mandatory service pack will be released on Thursday, January 6, 2010. After the release of the service pack, the next time you log in to the EPA Host System, you will be prompted to update your Client Tool to 2009 Q4 service pack 1. (If you have not already updated to the 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool, you will first update to the 2009 Q4 version and then to the 2009 Q4 service pack 1 version.)

Labels: Release Schedule Information

January 1st marks the beginning of the 2009 quarter 4 reporting period. Sources required to report emissions data under the Acid Rain Program (ARP), Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have until January 30th to submit their emissions data to the EPA using the ECMPS Client Tool.

During this reporting period, the EPA expects to receive over 3,900 emissions data submissions. Given these large number of files that need to be submitted over the next 30 days, we, at technical support, encourage all sources to start working as soon as possible on the evaluation and submission of their data.

Start Early

We want to encourage sources to start early primarily because, with the large volume of submissions expected, if you have questions, you will get a faster response to your technical support request, the earlier in the month that you submit your request. If you wait until later in the month to begin working with your data and you run into problems that require technical support, your request will be added to a much longer queue than if you had submitted the request earlier in the submission period.

Technical Support Information

Information on getting technical support through the resources on the Web site or by submitting a technical support request has all been consolidated in the Web site's Help section. We would like to highlight that, as necessary, FAQs and Known Issues will continue to be updated throughout the submission period. Hours for technical support are listed on the Contact Us page. Note, that technical support will be unavailable on the business day of Monday, January 1st because it is New Year's Day.

Resubmission Requests

Requests to resubmit QA or emissions data should be made using the Resubmission Request Form. Beginning with the 2009 quarter 3 reporting period, the form was been put online in order to streamline the process of receiving the information for the request and providing the necessary submission access.

Keep Up-To-Date

To keep up-to-date with ECMPS News items, we would suggest subscribing to ECMPS News.

You can receive the ECMPS News posts via email by subscribing to ECMPS News or adding the ECMPS News feed to your RSS Reader. To subscribe via email, simply enter your email address in the box provided on the upper right part of the ECMPS News page and click the Subscribe button. To receive the RSS feed, click on the RSS feed, which also located at the bottom of every page on the Web site.

Labels: Technical Support, Technical Support Tip

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on New Year's Day, Friday, January 1st. Technical support will be available again on Monday, January 4th. Please note that due to many of the technical support staff being out of the office until January 4, 2010, responses to your questions might take longer than normal. To receive the fastest reply to your questions, we recommend sending your questions via email rather than using the telephone.

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will also be closed on the following upcoming holidays:

• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 15, 2010
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 31, 2010
• Independence Day (Observed) - Monday, July 5, 2010
• Labor Day - Monday, September 6, 2010

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Christmas Day, Friday, December 25th. Technical support will be available again on Monday, December 28th. Please note that due to many of the technical support staff being out of the office until January 4, 2010, responses to your questions might take longer than normal. To receive the fastest reply to your questions, we recommend sending your questions via email rather than using the telephone.

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will also be closed on the following upcoming holidays:

• New Year's Day - Friday, January 1, 2010
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 15, 2010
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 31, 2010
• Independence Day (Observed) - Monday, July 5, 2010

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

The holiday season is here, and that means that technical support staff will be taking days off to be home for the holidays.

Technical support will continue to be provided over the next several weeks, but as some of our staff take well deserved time off, it might take a little longer than usual to respond to and resolve your technical support requests.

Also, note that there will be no technical support available on December 25, 2009 and January 1, 2010. However, beginning January 4, 2010, the technical support team will all be back in the office.

From everyone at ECMPS technical support, we hope your family and you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

Labels: Technical Support

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, today, Monday, December 21, 2009, all Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are closed.

This means that the U.S. EPA Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) office will be closed, and personnel you are used to contacting will be out of the office.

The 2009 Quarter 4 Release of the Client Tool is now available.

For details about what was included in this release, consult the Release Notes.

In order to use the Client Tool, you must be a Designated Representative, Alternate Designated Representative, or an ECMPS agent for a Representative. In addition, you must have a CAMD Business System (CBS) user name, current CBS password, and have completed a CROMERR Subscriber Agreement Form.

All current users of the Client Tool will be prompted to upgrade to this latest version the next time that each user logs in to the EPA Host System. For more information about the Update Service which updates the Client Tool, watch the Update Service tutorial.

All new users of the Client Tool must download and install the 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool. Users are urged to follow all instructions on the Web site and to consult the Installation Guide for step-by-step instructions on how to install the Client Tool.

In order to insure that all technical support questions are tracked and answered, EPA has requested that all technical support questions, including installation questions, should be submitted to ECMPS Technical Support.

The CAMD Business System (CBS) is currently unavailable in order to complete a scheduled upgrade. CBS is scheduled to be available again on Thursday, December 17th.

Labels: CAMD Business System

CAMD is looking for Feedback from Data and Maps Users

The data which are submitted through ECMPS end up in two locations. The first place is the EPA Host System which is the production database for all CAMD Business System and ECMPS data. A copy of some of these data are also copied to another database. That database is a read-only database which is used by the Web-based application Data and Maps.

Data and Maps is a publicly-accessible Internet application that provides access to emissions, allowance, compliance, and other program data which have been submitted to the EPA Host System.

CAMD would like to get feedback from users regarding their use of Data and Maps. If you, or someone you know, uses Data and Maps and would be available to be contacted by CAMD in order to provide feedback on Data and Maps, please send an email to the Data and Maps technical support.

Labels: Data and Maps

New Features Suggested By Users

The 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 16th. Along with bug fixes, the new version will have some new features. This is the third in a series of posts on some of the new features that will be available in the 2009 Q4 version.

The last post mentioned new features that had been suggested by users in the Shared Database Users' Forum (SDUF). Of course, suggestions come from users who are not shared database users. This post includes new features in the 2009 Q4 Client Tool that were suggested by users who are not part of the SDUF.

1. Allow monitoring plans to be entered for locations that are not going to be operational for more than a year into the future.


2. Add the serial number as a column to the upper data grid on the Components tab.


3. Add retired monitoring plans to Feedback Report.


4. Show submissions for all agents in Submission Log. (Shared Database only.)


5. Add option to view release notes when updating.

Suggestions for enhancements are always welcome, and any suggested enhancements should be sent to technical support. Before submitting a suggested enhancement, you should first first check the Requested Enhancements page.

If you have a suggested enhancement, send it along to technical support. However, you also might want to first check the Requested Enhancements page. On that page, there is a long list of suggestions which have been received along with the statuses of the requests. In some cases, your suggestion may already be on the list. If not, send an email to technical support with your suggested enhancement.

Recently Added FAQ explains How to Resubmit Data

With the January submission period, year-round reporting sources will complete their 2009 emissions submissions. However, as might be expected, the fourth quarter reporting often leads to the resubmission of data for previous quarters in the reporting year.

At ECMPS Technical Support, we are anticipating that the January reporting month will not be any different than in previous years, and we are fully expecting that that there will be an increase in requests to resubmit data.

In order to prepare for that, there is a new FAQ which answers the question of how to resubmit data.

The FAQ is organized by the three different data types--monitoring plan, QA, and emissions. It describes what sources need to do in order to resubmit these different data types.

If you need to resubmit data, please consult this FAQ for information on what steps you need to take.

Labels: FAQ, Technical Support Tip

Enhancements Suggested by the Shared Database Users' Forum

The 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 16th. Along with bug fixes, the new version will have some new features. This is the second in a series of posts on some of the new features that will be available in the 2009 Q4 version.

In this post, the focus is on features that were first suggested by the Shared Database Users' Forum. The Shared Database Users' Forum is made up of volunteers who have agreed to provide feedback on their use of the Client Tool in the context of using it in a shared network database setup.

All of the following new features for the 2009 Q4 version were suggested by forum participants.

1. The Evaluation Results screen now includes the ability to save all of the results to a Microsoft Excel file.


2. The File Import Validation Report now includes the User ID associated with each import.


3. Date filters were added to the QA report selection criteria screens.
   


4. A User Locks Report was added to show what resources are locked by which users.


5. All report selection screens were made to be re-sizable.

If you are a shared network database user and would like to participate in the forum, send an email to technical support indicating your interest in participating in the Shared Database Users' Forum.

This week some members of the team who have helped design, develop, test, maintain, and support several CAMD applications, including ECMPS, went on a business trip to the National Computer Center (NCC). Early Tuesday morning found six of us in a rented minivan headed to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina where NCC is located. In support of CAMD, we spent the day in meetings with CAMD and NCC personnel.

NCC hosts the EPA data center for many of the applications with which ECMPS users are familar: CAMD Business System (CBS), Data & Maps, and, of course, ECMPS.

During the meetings, we had the opportunity to meet a number of the people who help maintain the actual servers which are part of CAMD's technical architecture. Unfortunately, because one of the presentations ran long, we were not able to get a data center tour. Of course, it was good to be able to put faces to names, and we appreciated the opportunity to discuss ways to continue to improve our collaboration in supporting CAMD's applications.

Here is a picture of five of us outside the main building.


Jennifer Johnson, David Ward, Mark Hayward, Peter Robie, Bill Myers, Ingrid Thomson (photographer)

(By the way, if you ever wonder where your data go after you submit it to EPA. The data end up in the building behind us.)

Generate a Non-Operating Emissions File

The 2009 Q4 version of the Client Tool is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 16th. Along with bug fixes, the new version will have some new features. Some of these new features will be described in this post and in several upcoming posts.

The first new feature to be highlighted is the ability to generate a non-operating emissions file in the Client Tool.

If you need to report for a unit which did not operate during a quarter, you can use this functionality to generate an emissions file with zeros for every hour. The feature is found in the Emissions module. To use, simply select the facility and quarter and then generate the file. After the file has been generated, it will automatically be evaluated. Once the data have been evaluated without any critical 1 errors, the emissions data are ready to be submitted to the EPA.

As part of the preparation for the release of the next version of the ECMPS Client Tool, the EPA Host System will be unavailable from December 9th through December 16th. On December 16th, the next version is scheduled to be released. At that time users who have already installed the Client Tool will be required to update to the new version, and users who have not installed the Client Tool will be able to download and install the new version.

Users who have outstanding data which need to be submitted or resubmitted should complete any submissions or resubmissions before December 9th. Otherwise, these users will need to wait until December 16th in order to submit or resubmit data.

During the planned outage time, users will only be able to use the Client Tool in the "Work Offline" mode. The following functionality will not be available:

• Log in to the EPA Host System from the Client Tool.


• Perform the initial synchronization which is the last step in installing the Client Tool.


• Synchronize data from the EPA Host System.


• Retrieve data from the EPA Host System.


• Submit data to the EPA Host System.

Labels: Release Schedule Information

As in previous months prior to submission periods, there will be a release of a new version (2009 Q4) of the Client Tool. The new version of the Client Tool is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 16th.

Once the new version is released, the next time that users attempt to log in to the EPA Host System, they will be required to update to the new version of the software.

Prior to the release, the EPA Host System will be unavailable for about a week. Users will be unable to log in to the EPA Host System from Wednesday, December 9th until the release on December 16th. The inability to log in to the EPA Host System will prevent users from using the Client Tool to synchronize data, to retrieve data, and to submit data.

Shared database users should plan for the shared database to be updated with the release of the new version. On the day that the new version is released, the script to update the database will be made available. In addition, the two files that are used for performing the update using the Update utility will also be available in order to support users who need to upgrade but do not log in to the EPA Host System.

Labels: Release Schedule Information

The problem related to logging in which occurred on Monday, November 30th and was reported in an earlier post, has been corrected.

All ECMPS and CAMD Business System (CBS) users should be able to log in with their user names and passwords.

If you have forgotten your password or you have locked your account (whether you use CBS, ECMPS, or both), do not call the EPA or contact ECMPS Technical Support. Instead, use the CAMD Business System feature which allows you to unlock your own account. To use that feature, click on the "Forgot Password or Locked Out?" link on the CBS home page.

Due to a problem on the EPA Host System, users will not be able to log in to the EPA Host System or reset their passwords via the CAMD Business System.

The EPA Host System support staff are working to correct the problem as soon as possible.

If you need to log in to the CAMD Business System or the EPA Host System via ECMPS today, November 30, 2009, please contact either Karen VanSickle (202)343-9220, Paula Branch (202)343-9168, or Laurel DeSantis at (202)343-9191.

You must contact one of the people listed above because the ECMPS Support staff will not be able to help you reset your password.

In observance of Thanksgiving Day, the ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th. Technical support will be available again on Monday, November 30th.

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will also be closed on the following upcoming holidays:

• Christmas - Friday, December 25, 2009
• New Year's Day - Friday, January 1, 2010
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 15, 2010
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 31, 2010

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

Although the third quarter reporting period ended just over two weeks ago, the next reporting period will be here before you know it. As the next reporting period in January will be the final reporting period for 2009, it is anticipated that there will be a number of resubmissions.

In order to streamline the process for requesting resubmission of QA test data and emissions data, an online resubmission request form was added to the ECMPS Technical Support Web site prior to the last submission period. Please use this to request any resubmissions. The form is sent to the ECMPS technical support staff and carbon copied to the regional EPA Analyst(s).

Before the next submission period enhancements to the form will be made to further enhance the process. Look for those enhancements to be rolled out around the middle of December.

Labels: Technical Support

Although a large percentage of the third quarter emission submissions have been received (92% of the 4,191 expected submissions), there are a number that are outstanding. That means that many people will be hustling to complete their submissions before the end of the day on October 30th.

At technical support, we will answer as many questions as we can. However, if you are submitting a technical support request in these last hours of the submission period, please remember that you are arriving late to the queue and your question may not be answered as fast as you would like.

If you find yourself in the last minute mode trying to complete your submissions, please consult the information in the FAQ on what do if you are running out of time to submit.

We are about to hit the technical support rush hour which occurs at the end of each reporting period.

As technical support requests increase in these last two weeks of the month, please be patient. At technical support, we are working to answer your questions as fast as we can, but the later you wait to submit your question, the more likely it will not be answered in time. And, if you really wait until the last couple of days to submit a request, it is very likely that you will not get a quick turnaround because there will be a large number of requests ahead of yours in the technical support queue.

Labels: Technical Support, Technical Support Tip

On October 13th, historical emissions data were updated on the EPA Host System. These updates will affect users in two ways:

1. When logging into the EPA Host System for the first time after this update, synchronization may take longer than it normally does. Users who are associated with a large number of facilities will notice a significant increase in synchronization time.

2. Any emissions files that had been evaluated but not yet submitted may need to be re-evaluated. The Client Tool will automatically update these files to the status of "Needs Evaluation." In almost all cases, after reevaluating, the evaluation status of the file will revert to what it was prior to synchronization.

Recently, the number of subscriptions to ECMPS News increased to over 500 subscribers.

ECMPS News is the primary means for providing up-to-date information about ECMPS technical support. The ECMPS News posts include information about new releases, schedules for upcoming releases, planned outages, and new technical support information available on the rest of the Web site. Subscribers receive this information via email or RSS feed. Rather than having to check the Web site to determine what is new, you can simply have the new information delivered to your email inbox or RSS feed reader.

If you are not subscribed, we would suggest adding your email address to the list of subscribers in order to receive ECMPS News via email. New emails are only sent when new ECMPS News posts are made, and there is only at most one email per day. Finally, the emails are sent in the early morning so that the ECMPS News emails are one of the first new emails in your inbox when you open up your email in the morning.

To subscribe, click here, or enter your email address in the box in the upper right corner of the ECMPS New page and click the Subscribe button.

Labels: Technical Support

In observance of Columbus Day, the ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Monday, October 12th. Technical support will be available again on Tuesday, October 13th.

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will also be closed on the following upcoming holidays:

• Thanksgiving - Thursday and Friday, November 26-27, 2009
• Christmas - Friday, December 25, 2009
• New Year's Day - Friday, January 1, 2010
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 15, 2010

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

October 1st marks the beginning of the 2009 quarter 3 reporting period. Sources required to report emissions data under the Acid Rain Program (ARP), Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have until October 30th to submit their emissions data to the EPA using the ECMPS Client Tool.

During this reporting period, the EPA expects to receive over 4,150 emissions data submissions. Given these large number of files that need to be submitted over the next 30 days, we, at technical support, encourage all sources to start working as soon as possible on the evaluation and submission of their data.

Start Early

We want to encourage sources to start early primarily because, with the large volume of submissions expected, if you have questions, you will get a faster response to your technical support request, the earlier in the month that you submit your request. If you wait until later in the month to begin working with your data and you run into problems that require technical support, your request will be added to a much longer queue than if you had submitted the request earlier in the submission period.

Technical Support Information

Information on getting technical support through the resources on the Web site or by submitting a technical support request has all been consolidated in the Web site's Help section. We would like to highlight that, as necessary, FAQs and Known Issues will continue to be updated throughout the submission period. Hours for technical support are listed on the Contact Us page. Note, that technical support will be unavailable on the business day of Monday, October 12th because it is Columbus Day.

Resubmission Requests

Requests to resubmit QA or emissions data should be made using the new Resubmission Request Form. The form has been put online in order to streamline the process of receiving the information for the request and providing the necessary submission access.

Keep Up-To-Date

If you have not been able to keep up-to-date with recent ECMPS News items, we would suggest reviewing recent news items on the ECMPS News page. Some of the recent posts include:

• A Known Issue with Updating the Shared Database to the 2009 Q3 Version
  


• Service Pack 1 for the 2009 Q3 Version


• The New ECMPS Support Web Site

Also, if you have not already subscribed, we want to remind you that you can receive the ECMPS News posts via email by subscribing to ECMPS News or adding the ECMPS News feed to your RSS Reader. To subscribe via email, simply enter your email address in the box provided on the upper right part of the ECMPS News page and click the Subscribe button. To receive the RSS feed, click on the RSS feed, which also located at the bottom of every page on the Web site.

Labels: Technical Support, Technical Support Tip