ECMPS Support

One of the keys to synchronization in the Client Tool is an accurate comparison of data between the Client Tool and EPA Host System. The synchronization process compares dates and times recorded on the EPA Host System with dates and times recorded in the Client Tool database to determine if data need to be synchronized to the Client Tool.

Until the 2009Q1 reporting period, we had not run into a problem related to time zones. The basic synchronization process took into account time zones by, for data comparison purposes, adjusting the time to account for the possible time zone difference between the EPA Host System which is in the Eastern time zone and the Client Tool which could be in any time zone. However, a few shared database users found synchronization problems when multiple users in different time zones were connecting to the shared database. They found that no matter what, the data were always considered to be out of sync.

This problem, which was only found with the shared database and Client Tools in different time zones, will be corrected in the Service Pack 2 release scheduled for June 16th. The solution involves using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as the standard for all date and time comparisons. If you have any questions about this bug fix, contact Technical Support.

Labels: Preparing for 2009 Q2

Although July might seem far away, it will be here sooner than you think. During that second submission period of the year, the Ozone Season only reporters will submit emissions data to the EPA using ECMPS for the first time.

Unlike in previous quarters where sources had to wait until a few weeks before the submission period began to start working with their data, Ozone Season only reporters can begin working with their data today.

The monitoring plan and QA data from the legacy system have already been migrated to ECMPS for all sources, including Ozone Season only reporters. (The data were actually migrated by March 17, 2009.) That means that Ozone Season sources can begin correcting and submitting their monitoring plan data using the Client Tool.

If you have any questions about how to get started, look at the FAQs and tutorials for more information.

Labels: Preparing for 2009 Q2

In observance of Memorial Day, the ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Monday, May 25th. Technical support will be available again on Tuesday, May 26th.

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

• Independence Day - Friday, July 3, 2009
• Labor Day - Monday, September 7, 2009
• Columbus Day - Monday, October 12, 2009

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

As was announced at the Stakeholder Meeting in St. Louis last week, around June 16th, a mandatory service pack for the current release of the software will be released. This mid June release will be named Service Pack 2.

Client Tool users who have Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 1a will be able to use the Update Utility to quickly update to Service Pack 2. Any users who have not yet updated to Service Pack 1 from the original release on March 17th, should update before the June release.

As usual, with the release of a new version of service pack, release notes will be included which document the changes from the previous version. Before that, posts will be made on the blog to give a preview of upcoming changes that will be introduced in Service Pack 2.

In this post, we would like to highlight that the connection Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the Client Tool will be updated with Service Pack 2. As many of you know, a URL is the familiar looking Web address for an Internet resource. For example, ecmps.pqa.com is a URL. That particular URL maps to an IP address which happens to be 12.5.48.50. Throughout the Internet there are Domain Name Servers (DNS) which map URLs to IP addresses in order to route Internet traffic to the correct resource.

Currently, the ECMPS Client Tool is configured to access a static IP address. This IP address is shown in the lower right corner of the Client Tool as the picture shows.
This will change in Service Pack 2 when the static IP address will be replaced with a URL--ecmps.epa.gov. This should be transparent, but necessary for users.

The reason it is necessary is because the IP address which is associated with the URL is going to change in August 2009. The change to the URL in Service Pack 2 is being made in preparation for that change.

Users who have upgraded to Service Pack 2 should not notice any difference when the change is made in August. However, any user who has not upgraded to Service Pack 2 before the change in August will no longer be able to connect to the EPA Host System because the old IP address in versions prior to Service Pack 2 will no longer work.

Let us know if you have any questions about this change by sending an email to technical support or writing a comment on this blog post.

Labels: Preparing for 2009 Q2

At 9:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, May 14th, access to the EPA Host System will be interrupted for no longer than 10 minutes in order to perform routine maintenance.

If you experience problems attempting to connect to the EPA Host around this time, please wait until at least 9:10 a.m. EDT to attempt to connect to the EPA Host System.

All of the following Client Tool functionality which involve connecting to the EPA Host System are affected: logging in to the EPA Host System, synchronizing, retrieving data, and submitting data.

Any questions related to this outage should be sent to technical support.

Labels: Scheduled Outage

ECMPS Technical Support is excited about today's Stakeholder Meeting in St. Louis.

After a successful 2009Q1 reporting period, we are hoping to build on that success and continue to improve, especially as we prepare for the next submission period in July. One important way to achieving that success is receiving and responding to feedback from stakeholders and today's meeting provides an opportunity to do that.

There are a number of ways that you can provide feedback. For those who are attending the meeting, you can use the forms provided in your meeting folder to provide feedback. These forms can be filled out any time throughout the week and dropped off at the EPA booth in the EPRI Exhibition Hall.

As mentioned previously, a number of us from ECMPS Technical Support and the EPA will be in St. Louis for the Stakeholder Meeting and EPRI Conference. We would appreciate hearing your feedback in person. In order to get more time to chat, probably the best way to catch up with us is stopping by the EPA Booth.

Whether you are attending the Stakeholder Meeting or not, there are other ways that you can always provide feedback. First, a good way to give your feedback is to use the online feedback form. Second, you can comment on these blog posts.

No matter how you provide your feedback, we appreciate your taking the time to give us your comments.

As many of you know, there is an ECMPS Stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, May 12th of this week in St. Louis. The meeting is being held the day before the 2009 EPRI CEM User Group Conference and Exhibit which runs May 13-15.

Five members of the ECMPS Technical Support team will be traveling to St. Louis. All five will be at the Stakeholder Meeting, and two will be in the EPA Booth in the EPRI Exhibition Hall throughout the rest of the week.

If you are not able to speak with us in person at the meeting, be sure and come by the EPA booth to chat with us and the EPA folks who will be there. We look forward to catching up with familiar faces and getting to know new ones.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

The Spring 2009 ECMPS Stakeholder meeting is just a week away. A number of stakeholders will be gathering in St. Louis on Tuesday, May 12th prior to the EPRI CEMS User Group meeting.

Ever since there has been a Client Tool to demonstrate, a demonstration has been part of the Stakeholder meeting. The meeting in St. Louis is no different. At Technical Support, we would like to get your opinion on any areas of the Client Tool which you would like see demonstrated during the Stakeholder meeting Client Tool demonstration.

Some of the current ideas for the demonstration are:

• Reports: There are many of them in the Client Tool, but not always well-known as a source of valuable information.


• Utilities: These include Backup, Restore, Purge, and User Management.


• Help: The Client Tool's Help file can answer many of your functionality questions.


• Working with LME Data


• Support Web site: How to get the most out of the site.

If you have any additional ideas, simply add a comment to this post. (You can submit anonymous comments.) Thanks for your input.

(Also, note that because the comments are moderated, your comment will not appear immediately, but will be posted as soon as possible after you have added it. Comments are moderated in order to prevent "comments" from being added by bots and spammers.)

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

After the dust settled and the submissions which had gotten "stuck" on the EPA Host System had been rendered "unstuck", the final numbers showed that 93% of the anticipated emission submissions had been completed. (Note, this number represents submissions which were loaded on the EPA Host System. Data submitted with critical errors is not loaded on the EPA Host System.)

At Technical Support, we were very pleased to see that high of a percentage. It indicated to us that the many hours of preparation and hard work that had been made by industry, vendors, consultants, the EPA, and technical support had paid off in having a very successful first mandatory ECMPS submission period.

We know that there are still a number of sources (the 7%) who still need to submit their data without critical errors, and we are ready to help those sources get their questions answered in order that they can complete their submissions. By now, all those sources should have received an email reminder that their submissions are due. If you received an email and think that it is incorrectly indicating that you need to submit data, please contact technical support.

And we also know that the next submission period will arrive soon even if the calendar seems to indicate it is about eight weeks away. In order to address the bugs that were found during this last submission period and make additional changes to enhance the Client Tool, it is planned to release a Service Pack 2 to the Client Tool. That is scheduled to be released in the middle of June. More information about the specific dates will be announced near the end of May.

Finally, congratulations to Sean Gregory of DSG Solutions who predicted 93.5% as percentage complete by the end of April. His guess was the closest in absolute value terms. If you missed your opportunity to guess a value, we will give you another chance next submission period when all affected sources (including ozone season only sources) will be using ECMPS.