The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1st. Technical support will be available again on Friday, January 2nd. Please note that due to many of the technical support staff being out of the office for the holidays, 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. Our technical support staff will be up to full strength beginning on Monday, January 5th.

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

• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 16, 2009
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 25, 2009
• Independence Day - Friday, July 3, 2009
• Labor Day - Monday, September 7, 2009

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

The new year is almost here. Beginning on January 1, 2009, all affected sources will need to be monitoring data using resources that can report using the ECMPS Client Tool. In order to prepare for mandatory reporting using ECMPS, sources should take advantage of testing.

Testing is done using the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP). The CTP has all of the same functionality as the production version, but it works with test data instead of official data.

However, in order to test, you must register. The deadline to register for testing with the CTP is January 2, 2009.

Registration is simple and easy. Simply click here to fill out the registration form. All registrations received before the end of the day on January 2nd will be processed by Thursday, January 8, 2009.

Labels: Industry Testing

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25th. Technical support will be available again on Friday, December 26th. Please note that due to many of the technical support staff being out of the office over the next two weeks for the holidays, 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 - Thursday, January 1, 2009
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 16, 2009
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 25, 2009
• Independence Day - Friday, July 3, 2009

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

The ECMPS Client Tool version 4 for both production and the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) has been released.

Instructions for Production Users

All current production users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are available through the link which was provided in the email which you should have been sent or should have been forwarded to you.

New production users should have received an email or been forwarded an email which includes the link for getting started with the ECMPS Client Tool production version.

Any questions about installing or upgrading the production version of the Client Tool should be sent to ecmps-support@pqa.com.

Instructions for CTP Users

All current CTP users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are shown here.

New CTP users will need to download the installation and run it on their computer. Instructions for installing the CTP for the first time can be found here.

Questions about installing or upgrading the CTP should be sent to ecmps-testing@pqa.com.

Technical Support Reminder

Technical Support will be closed on December 25, 2008 and January 1, 2009. On all of the other days from December 22nd through January 2nd, technical support will continue to be available. However, over those two weeks many of the technical support staff will be taking time off for vacation. Please be patient when waiting for responses to your questions as there will not be our usual full team of technical support staff available to help. By January 5th, when the new reporting period has begun, we will have our entire technical support staff back in the office.

Factoid About Release 4

For internal development and testing, all releases of the Client Tool are assigned a Greek letter name. This naming convention is based on the usual Greek letter naming scheme used for software development which begins with Alpha and then moves on to Beta.

As development continued, this naming convention was continued beyond these first two letters of the Greek alphabet. This last version--Version 4--was named for the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet which is Eta. (For more about the Greek alphabet, click here.)

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

As most stakeholders know by now, the next few months will be a time of busy preparation for mandatory reporting under ECMPS. At the Stakeholder Meeting, we shared some charts that showed the challenges that lie ahead.

First, during this year in which submission under ECMPS was optional, we have seen the voluntary participation grow steadily each reporting period. However, as the chart below shows, the number of sources which have yet to make the transition is substantial.


Given this large number who will be coming in during the first two reporting periods of 2009, we would suggest that sources take advantage of the testing environment which is available. With so many sources switching to ECMPS in 2009, there will be a great deal of requests for technical support. Anything sources can do to prepare themselves and prevent "long lines" in the technical support queue, can only help.

Our experience at technical support has been that sources who tested before making the transition to officially submitting under ECMPS, had a much better time in making the transition. (For more information on how to register for testing, click here.)

The next chart shows testing registration and participation in testing. The blue columns show the cumulative number who registered to test during each quarter, and the red columns show the number of testers who logged in to the Test EPA Host System at least three times during the quarter. The three logins were considered a minimum participation in testing the Client Tool. Again, the numbers are encouraging, but it would be more encouraging if the actual participation level was higher. For example, the projected participation for this quarter is only 66% of registered testers.


Based on this chart, we at technical support have the same recommendation--test the Client Tool. It is not enough to register to test, you need to actively test the Client Tool.

The final chart, shows the types of production technical support requests that we have received since the production Client Tool was released in April.


The smallest category is Policy Issues which requires Technical Support to defer to EPA in order to receive an answer. An example of this might be a question about an unusual configuration.

The next category in increasing size is Application Bugs which are questions which are related to actual bugs in the software. For example, if a user identifies that an evaluation check does not work correctly and we confirm this to be the case, the ticket is put in this category.

After Application Bugs, the next largest category is Technical Requests which are non-development issues such as questions about installation or connecting to the EPA Host System through a proxy server.

The second largest category is General Inquiries which are typically requests for information that run the range of basic questions about ECMPS to questions about how to perform a specific function in the Client Tool.

Finally, the largest category is Data Issues which consists of questions about how to report data under the XML format and the new ECMPS reporting instructions.

Given the large number of Data Issue questions, we can only recommend once again that testing be performed. This can only decrease the number of data questions which stakeholders will have when they transition to the mandatory reporting under ECMPS in 2009. (For more information on how to register for testing, click here.)

Labels: Industry Testing

The electronic mail carrier continues to deliver mail to the Technical Support ticketing system. For this installment of mailbag, we will do some number crunching as the focus turns to test numbers.

By the Numbers

Question

I heard that the Client Tool generates test numbers for QA certification and test data. Is this true?

-- Looking out for (Test) Number One

Answer

Dear Looking,

The Client Tool does not generate test numbers. Test numbers are data which are the responsibility of submitters to provide like any other data which must reported.

Under the new QA reporting instructions, tests must use a unique test number for each test type for each monitoring location (unit, stack, or pipe). Many of the previously submitted QA tests do not conform to this standard. In order to be able to load the data into the EPA Host System, the tests had to be renumbered. In preparing for the production release of ECMPS, the previously submitted QA data will be loaded with renumbered test numbers.

I've got your number

Question

How should I number my QA tests under the new test numbering requirements?

-- Feeling a little Outnumbered

Answer

Dear Feeling,

As sources begin to report data using ECMPS, they must apply the new unique test number requirement. The test number field has been enlarged to allow up to 18 characters. This change should assist sources in reporting unique numbers for a given location and test type, and also give sources the flexibility to develop their own numbering system for their data management needs.

There is no recommended numbering scheme, and the source or DAHS is free to employ any numbering scheme as long as it produces test numbers which are unique for the location and the test type for all time.

---

If you are still feeling numerically-challenged, send us an email, and we will answer your test number question. Who knows? Maybe the next installment of mailbag will be your lucky number, and your question will be featured.

Labels: Mailbag

The EPA Host System outage which was announced last week has begun. It will continue from today, December 8th until Tuesday, December 16th. The outage affects both production and CTP users. The EPA Host System will be unavailable during this time in order to perform system updates for the new release of the Client Tool. The new release of the Client Tool for both production and CTP is scheduled for December 17th. At that time, the EPA Host System will again be available.

During the outage, the following functionality in the production version and the CTP will not be available:

1. Log in to the EPA Host System
2. Synchronize with the EPA Host System
3. Retrieve data from the EPA Host System
4. Submit data to the EPA Host System
5. Complete the initial synchronization which is part of the installation.

After the update has been completed, a blog post will be added to announce that the update is complete and the access to the EPA Host System is again available.

Labels: Industry Testing, Scheduled Outage

The latest installment in the library of tutorials is actually an update of a tutorial that has been out for some time.

The Quick Start tutorial is now available with updates to reflect the ECMPS Client Tool interface changes which were recently made to the Evaluate and Submit modules.

The tutorial provides the same basic foundation which it previously did. The purpose of the tutorial is to explain the core functions of the Client Tool--Import, Evaluate, and Submit--in such a way that the user can quickly started working with data in the Client Tool.

This tutorial, like all of the others, is an interactive, audiovisual presentation which can be viewed in an Internet browser. Also, like the other tutorials, it is designed to provide practical instruction in a format which can be viewed in 10 minutes or less.

To see the complete list of ECMPS tutorials, click here.

Labels: Tutorial

The next release of the Client Tool for both production and CTP is scheduled for December 17th. With that release, there will be one additional Hourly QA Status check added to the emissions data checking. The new QA status checks will be for daily calibration data. This is a new area of checking that does not exist in MDC-Hourly.

All of the other hourly QA status checks which are currently in the Client Tool were also in MDC-Hourly--Appendix D, Appendix E, RATA, and Linearity.

Also, similar to MDC, the flowcharts for these status checks are being made available. In the new release, the flowcharts will be added to the Client Tool Help file. In addition, the flowcharts for all of the types of hourly QA status checks have been posted on the Support Web site on the Check Specifications page.

Labels: Check Specifications

The next version of the Client Tool, which is scheduled to be released on December 17, 2008, will include a new version of the emissions XML schema. Version 1.2 of the emissions XML schema will include changes for sources who must report data under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

The RGGI program only affects sources in ten states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. For more information about RGGI, including how to determine if your source is affected, visit the RGGI Web site.

Sources who are not affected by RGGI can use either version 1.1 (the current version) or version 1.2 (the new version) of the emissions XML schema. The Client Tool always allows for backward-compatibility which means that XML files based on older versions of the XML schemas can be imported into the Client Tool. The key is to insure that the tag at the beginning of the file reports the version of the XML schema on which the XML file is based. For more information about the XML schema version, see the FAQ on the version tag.

Here is a brief summary of the additions to the emissions XML schema which are included in the new version.

Two changes have been made to DailyEmissionData. First, the element TotalCarbonBurned has been added. Any source who uses the emissions XML schema version 1.2 will need to include this new tag. If the source is not affected by RGGI, the tag should be left empty.

Second, in DailyEmissionData, a reference has been added for the new complex element DailyFuelData. DailyFuelData only applies to RGGI, and sources who do not need to report under RGGI should not include DailyFuelData as a child of DailyEmissionData.

DailyFuelData consists of four elements--FuelCode, DailyFuelFeed, CarbonContentUsed, and FuelCarbonBurned.

Details about all of these changes including what are acceptable values for these elements will be included in the documentation included with the next release. The addendum for the reporting instructions will include information about these data elements, and the changes to the XML schema and the XML schema documentation will be updated to include these new elements.

Labels: XML

Please note that you will be unable to connect to the EPA Host System from December 8th through December 16th. This outage affects both production and CTP users. The EPA Host System will be unavailable during this time in order to perform system updates for the new release of the Client Tool. The new release of the Client Tool for both production and CTP is scheduled for December 17th. At that time, the EPA Host System will again be available.

During the outage, the following functionality in the production version and the CTP will not be available:

1. Log in to the EPA Host System
2. Synchronize with the EPA Host System
3. Retrieve data from the EPA Host System
4. Submit data to the EPA Host System
5. Complete the initial synchronization which is part of the installation.

After the update has been completed, a blog post will be added to announce that the update is complete and the access to the EPA Host System is again available.

Labels: Industry Testing, Scheduled Outage

In observance of Thanksgiving Day, the ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th. Technical support will be available again on Monday, December 1st.

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

• Christmas - Thursday, December 25, 2008
• New Year's Day - Thursday, January 1, 2009
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 16, 2009
• Memorial Day - Monday, May 25, 2009

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Industry Testing, Technical Support

There will be limited technical support for CTP users November 24-26. This will allow our technical support staff to focus on providing support for production users who need to complete 2008Q3 submissions.

In addition, there will be NO technical support for CTP and production users on Thanksgiving which is Thursday, November 27th and the following day, Friday, November 28th. Our office is closed on Thanksgiving and our technical support staff is also taking the day off on Friday.

Labels: Industry Testing, Technical Support

The ECMPS Support Blog is on the road today. After a few hours drive north, we are in Arlington, Virginia for the Fall ECMPS Stakeholder meeting.

As has been the case for a number of years, the Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) of EPA is hosting a Fall ECMPS Stakeholder meeting. This year's meeting is at the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, Virginia, and it will be the last Stakeholder Meeting before the first mandatory submission period in 2009.

The meeting will cover a variety of agenda items including:

• Project Update
• Results from 2008 ECMPS Reporting
• Lessons Learned
• Client Tool Demonstration
• Transitioning to ECMPS
• Client Tool Demonstration
• 1Q 2009 Release Schedule

Of course, there will also be time for Q&A during the meeting.

The support team in attendance at the meeting will include Jennifer Johnson, Chaffee Burke, David Ward, Casey Webb, and Chris Worley.

If you are not able to attend the meeting, you will be able to review materials from the meeting, including audiovisual presentations after the presentations are posted several weeks after the meeting. The release of the Stakeholder meeting presentations will be announced on this blog.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

Mailbag has returned from a long hiatus with a couple of new questions based on actual questions asked through technical support.

If you are not able to attend the Stakeholder Meeting

Question

I will not be able to attend the Stakeholder meeting on November 19th. Is there a way for me to find out what was covered at the meeting?

-- Not Able to Attend

Answer

Dear Not Able to Attend,

The Stakeholder meeting on November 19th will cover a variety of materials. The preliminary agenda is listed here. This agenda includes a lot of valuable material which sources and DAHS vendors should review if they are unable to attend the meeting. Fortunately, the materials will be made available after the meeting.

After the meeting, the PowerPoint presentations will be posted on the EPA Web site, and that will be announced here as well. In addition, several weeks after the meeting, we will post audiovisual presentations from the meeting which you will be able to watch online from this support Web site. You can view presentations from past Stakeholder meetings by clicking here.

When to use the CTP and when to use Production

Question

I am responsible for a large number of sources. Some of them have transitioned to ECMPS and some have not. Should I be using the CTP or the production version?

-- Confused about Versions

Answer

Dear Confused,

Let's see if I can clear up your confusion. There are indeed two versions of the ECMPS Client Tool. Currently, the most widely used version is the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP). This version is for testing. By testing, we mean sources and DAHS vendors should be using it to test their XML files and become familiar with how the Client Tool works. In addition, stakeholders can use the CTP to evaluate their data in the Client Tool in order to see what corrections need to be made to their data based on new reporting requirements or old reporting requirements that were not checked previously in MDC.

It is important to keep in mind that the CTP is identical to the production version with one very important exception. The exception is that the data in the CTP is test data. The data in the CTP was originally loaded back in April 2008 based on a snapshot of official data taken at that time, but it has not been updated since then. That means that any official data which you have submitted since April 2008 is not in the CTP. The other important affect on the CTP data being test data is that changes to the data in the CTP, even if submitted through CTP, DO NOT affect official data.

The production version of the Client Tool is the version which should be used by everyone who has transitioned to ECMPS and needs to report official data using XML. In addition, anyone who is supporting the submission of official data (e.g., DAHS vendors, stack testers, consultants) should use the production version. This allows you to work with the actual data which is essential to providing support to the official submitter. If you are supporting the official submitter, but will not be making submissions, you need to be made a retrieve agent. This will allow you to view all of the official data, but you will NOT be able to submit the data. You can learn more about ECMPS agents here.

One final thought is that the CTP has been very valuable for preparing sources to make the transition to officially submitting through the production version. The sources who have used the CTP to test before submitting officially using the production version have had the least amount of difficulty in working with the production version. Since around 70% of sources will not have made the transition to ECMPS by fourth quarter 2008, there should be a lot of people using the CTP to prepare to test prior to the mandatory use of the Client Tool for first quarter 2008 submissions. If you would like to register to test, click here.

Labels: Mailbag

The National Computer Center has scheduled maintenance on November 15, 2008 which will prevent Client Tool users from connecting to the EPA Host System. The scheduled downtime will be from 6:00 a.m. EST until 1:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, November 15, 2008. The downtime will affect both production and CTP users.

During the outage, the following functionality will not be available:

1. Log in to the EPA Host System
2. Synchronize with the EPA Host System
3. Retrieve data from the EPA Host System
4. Submit data to the EPA Host System
5. Complete the initial synchronization which is part of the installation.

This outage will not affect using the Client Tool while working "offline".

Labels: Scheduled Outage

The testing period for the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) has been extended until January 15, 2009. (It was scheduled to end November 21, 2008.) This extension allows stakeholders more time to work with the Client Tool in order to prepare for 2009 when Part 75 reporting must be done using the ECMPS Client Tool.

It is not likely that the test period will be extended beyond January 15, as we will need to use that time to prepare for 2009Q1 production.

Note that, the deadline for registering to test is Friday, January 2, 2009. More information about the CTP and how to register can be found here.

As was previously announced, CTP technical support is limited during the last two weeks of October (Monday October 20 through Friday October 31). This allows our technical support staff to focus on providing support for production users during the crunch time of the submission period. In addition, CTP support will also be limited around the Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.

During these limited support time periods, you may continue to send emails to ecmps-testing@pqa.com during these weeks, but your issue may not be resolved immediately.

Labels: Industry Testing, Technical Support

Just in time for the last part of the third quarter submission period, the ECMPS support team has released a new tutorial which covers the Submit Module of the Client Tool. The Submit tutorial is the latest installment in the series of online tutorials which are being made available to all ECMPS users.

This tutorial, like all of the others, is an interactive, audiovisual presentation which can be viewed in your Internet browser. Also, like the other tutorials, it is designed to provide practical instruction in a format which can be viewed in 15 minutes or less.

The "Submit" tutorial explains how you can use the Client Tool to submit your data to the EPA Host System. Specifically, the tutorial covers how you can do the following in the Client Tool:

• Determine what can be submitted.
• Queue up multiple items to be submitted.
• Follow your submission as the data are submitted.
• Verify your submission.
• Produce a feedback report.

We have also enhanced our tutorials page by reorganizing the order of the tutorials and providing additional information in the descriptions for each tutorial.

To see the complete list of ECMPS tutorials, click here.

Labels: Tutorial

As we are sure that everyone is aware of, this is the reporting month for 2008 third quarter data. The deadline to submit emissions data is October 30.

In order to focus on technical support for the production version of the ECMPS Client Tool, technical support for CTP users will be limited over the next two weeks (October 20 - 31).

CTP users can continue to submit technical support questions, but they should expect a much longer than usual turn-around time for the answers to their technical support questions.

Labels: Industry Testing

In observance of Columbus Day, the ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Monday, October 13th. Technical support will be available again on Tuesday, October 14th.

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

• Thanksgiving - Thursday and Friday, November 27-28, 2008
• Christmas - Thursday, December 25, 2008
• New Year's Day - Thursday, January 1, 2009
• Presidents' Day - Monday, February 16, 2009

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Industry Testing, Technical Support

Recently, EPA discovered a problem with the dates in the program records of numerous units. These dates provide information as to when:

• A unit becomes affected by the program (Unit Monitor Certification Begin Date or UMCBD)


• A unit must begin reporting hourly emissions data for the program (Emissions Recording Begin Date or ERBD)


• A unit's emissions begin counting toward compliance (Unit Monitor Certification Deadline or UMCD).

The ERBD in the program record is significant for ECMPS reporters because the begin dates in the monitoring plan records should be based upon the ERBD in the applicable program record. For example, the begin dates in the SO2 method record and the initial SO2 system record should be the same as the ERBD of the ARP program record.

Because the dates in many unit program records were incorrect, the begin dates in many records in previously submitted monitoring plans are also incorrect. Therefore, it will be necessary to validate and, if necessary, correct the begin dates in all monitoring plans affected by the program date corrections.

The corrected program dates will be automatically downloaded into the Client Tool the first time you log in to the EPA Host System. To determine if any of your monitoring plans are affected by these corrections and need to be resubmitted, view the Submission Access Report.

Prior to fixing the begin dates in your monitoring plan, you will need to update to the Client Tool software using the Update Service located under the EPA Host menu.

After you have updated your software, please re-evaluate the affected monitoring plans. If any of your begin dates are incorrect, you will receive errors on the evaluation. Typical errors that may be found in the evaluation report include METHOD-14-C, PROGRAM-2-B, PROGRAM-3-B, PROGRAM-5-B, and PROGRAM-6-B.

To help you correct these errors, you can view the dates in your program records in the monitoring plan printout and the unit characteristics tab in the monitoring plan section of the Client Tool. If you believe any of the dates in the program records are incorrect, please contact technical support.

Labels: Industry Testing

Mailbag has returned with a couple of new questions based on actual questions asked through technical support. In this installment, the Mailbag answers two questions from users who are looking for data in the Client Tool.

Where are the data? (Part 1)

Question

I am a production user. I do not see my previously submitted QA and emissions data. Should I retrieve it from the EPA Host System?

-- Looking for my missing data

Answer

Dear Looking,

With one exception, it is never necessary to retrieve data from the EPA Host System using the Retrieve module in the Client Tool. The Client Tool automatically obtains a summary of all of the previously submitted data which you need for evaluating and submitting data are obtained through the automatic synchronization process. No other data need to be retrieved. In fact, it can be detrimental to retrieve the data.

The one exception is when EPA has authorized the resubmission of previously submitted QA or emissions data. In that one case, it might be necessary to retrieve the data through the Retrieve module. However, even this is not necessary because in many cases users will be resubmitting data which have been provided by a DAHS vendor.

The detrimental part of retrieving data is that it fills up your database with data which you do not need and, in the case of QA data, the Client Tool will require you to evaluate all of that QA data. It would be far better to not retrieve any additional data unless it is necessary in the case of resubmission.

For more information about how to view your QA data in the Client Tool, view this previous mailbag question on "Hidden" QA Test.

Where are the data? (Part 2)

Question

I recently started to use the CTP for testing, and I am not able to retrieve my 2008 quarter 2 QA data. Where are my data?

-- Looking for my missing data again

Answer

Dear Looking,

The CTP began in May. Before the CTP was available, a snapshot of the legacy production data was taken and loaded in to the CTP environment. By snapshot, I mean that the data destined for the CTP were taken on a day in the middle of April. The snapshot of the data was then transferred into the CTP environment. The data taken were all of the monitoring plan and QA data available at that point in time. Emissions data were not transferred into the CTP environment. Although the data taken are considered a snapshot, because it so much data, the process takes some time to move the data into the CTP.

Any data which were submitted after the middle of April to the legacy production environment will not be found in the CTP. That data has not been transferred to the CTP, and currently, there are no plans to update the data in the CTP from the data which were taken in April. The reason for this include the fact that data loading and quality assuring the data loading is a time consuming process and the data are all test data.

For CTP users who are looking for data submitted after April, I would suggest contacting your DAHS vendor in order to determine if that data can be obtained as XML files which can then be imported into the CTP.

Labels: Mailbag

Following the release of version 3 of the Client Tool (both the production and the CTP versions), we have found a number of issues that need to be addressed prior to the end of the 2008Q3 submission period.

In order to address these issues, a update to version 3 of the Client Tool needs to be made. We are scheduling this update to be released on Tuesday, October 7th.

The update will address the known issues which have been identified with version 3. For the most part, many of the known issues only address a relatively small number of sources who are submitting official data through ECMPS.

However, one of the issues to be addressed will affect a majority of the sources who have switched to using ECMPS for official data submissions. In many cases, the Emissions Recording Begin Date (ERBD) for a unit needs to be corrected. The ERBD affects the begin dates for methods and systems.

After the corrections to the dates have been made through the update, the evaluation of monitoring plan data may include METHOD-14, PROGRAM-2, PROGRAM-3, PROGRAM-4, or PROGRAM-5 evaluation check errors. Note, that this will affect monitoring plan data which have been previously submitted with no critical errors. In addition, because the ERBD is fundamental to the monitoring plan, the monitoring plan data will need to be evaluated after the update. These evaluation errors can be corrected by adjusting the method and system begin dates.

Much more detailed information about the impact of this date correction will be posted prior to the release of the update. This information will include details about how to correct the evaluation errors that will occur.

In the meantime, if production users are receiving any of the evaluation errors listed above, it is probably best to wait until the update has been released before proceeding to attempt to correct these errors.

The update for CTP3 will be identical to the update for production. This will continue our practice of keeping the CTP in sync with the production version of the Client Tool.

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

Thanks for all of the well wishes on our move. The move went smoothly, and we are now enjoying our new space. All technical support systems are up and running and ready to assist with providing technical support. Also, our technical support staff is moved in and ready to answer your questions. Let us know if you experience any problems with either sending a technical support email or placing a technical support call.

Labels: Technical Support

As mentioned in previous posts and via email, Perrin Quarles Associates (PQA) is moving its offices from September 19-22. During that time, we will not be able to provide technical support for either the production or CTP versions of the ECMPS Client Tool. We would suggest waiting until after the move before sending any technical support emails.

Labels: Technical Support

The ECMPS Client Tool version 3 for both production and the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) has been released.

Instructions for Production Users

All current production users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are available through the link which was provided in the email which you should have been sent or should have been forwarded to you.

New production users should have received an email or been forwarded an email which includes the link for getting started with the ECMPS Client Tool production version.

Any questions about installing or upgrading the production version of the Client Tool should be sent to ecmps-support@pqa.com.

Instructions for CTP Users

All current CTP users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are shown here.

New CTP users will need to download the installation and run it on their computer. Instructions for installing the CTP for the first time can be found here.

Questions about installing or upgrading the CTP should be sent to ecmps-testing@pqa.com.

Technical Support Reminder

Technical support for both production and the CTP will be unavailable from September 19 through September 22 due to PQA moving its offices.

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

The ECMPS Support Team is pleased to announce the release of the twelfth tutorial. The topic for this latest tutorial is emissions data.

This tutorial, like the other eleven, is an interactive audiovisual presentation which be viewed online. Also, like the other tutorials, it is designed to provide practical instruction in a format which can be viewed in 15 minutes or less.

The "ECMPS Emissions Data" tutorial explains how you can use the Client Tool to work with your emissions data. Specifically, the tutorial covers how you can do the following in the Client Tool:

• View emissions data
• Evaluate emissions data
• Export emissions data to be viewed in a spreadsheet
• View emissions summary data
• Generate reports on emissions data

To see the complete list of ECMPS tutorials, click here.

Labels: Tutorial

Please note that you will be unable to connect to the EPA Host System from September 8th through September 16th. The EPA Host System will be unavailable during this time in order to perform system updates.

During the outage, the following functionality in the production version and the CTP will not be available:

1. Log in to the EPA Host System
2. Synchronize with the EPA Host System
3. Retrieve data from the EPA Host System
4. Submit data to the EPA Host System
5. Complete the initial synchronization which is part of the installation.

After the update has been completed, a blog post will be added to announce that the update is complete and the access to the EPA Host System is again available.

Labels: Industry Testing, Scheduled Outage

Just a reminder that in order to prepare for the release of version 3 of the production and CTP versions of the Client Tool, technical support is limited this week. Users who ask for technical support should expect a delay in the response to their requests for assistance.

Labels: Technical Support