ECMPS Support

Although a large percentage of the fourth quarter emission submissions have been received, there are a number that are outstanding. That means that a number of people will be hustling to complete their submissions before the end of the reporting period.

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 understand that you are arriving late to the queue, and your question may not be answered as fast as you would like. In general, technical support request tickets are answered in a first-come-first-served basis.

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.

Labels: Technical Support

The ECMPS Technical Support Help Desk will be closed on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 17th. Technical support will be available again on Tuesday, January 18th. 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:

• Memorial Day - Monday, May 30, 2011
• Independence Day - Monday, July 4, 2011
• Labor Day - Monday, September 5, 2011
• Veterans' Day - Friday, November 11, 2011

You can view the full technical support holiday schedule here.

Labels: Technical Support

In a previous post, information was provided about reporting for the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP). This post provides some more detailed information about the registration process and establishing agents for reporting for the GHGRP via the Electronic Greenhouse Gas Reporting Tool (e-GGRT). The deadline to register for e-GGRT is January 30, 2011; all official submissions of data for the GHGRP must be completed through e-GGRT, not the Emissions Collection and Monitoring Plan System (ECMPS). (Sources who elect to use Part 75 methodologies for reporting CO2M, should see the clarification for their reporting.)

Registration Process

• In order to make an official submission for the GHGRP, you must be registered to use e-GGRT.


• Registration for e-GGRT is only done through e-GGRT, not through the CAMD Business System (CBS).


• To register for e-GGRT, navigate to https://ghgreporting.epa.gov/ghg/login.do. If you already have a valid CDX user name and password you can use it to log into e-GGRT.


• A CBS user name and password WILL NOT allow you to access e-GGRT or allow you to submit data for GHGRP.

Who Must Register

• Representatives for sources who report to CBS and e-GGRT must be the same persons (primary and alternate).


• Representatives and agents who DO NOT have a CBS user name and password DO NOT need to obtain one in order to register for the GHGRP. If you have questions about this, call the e-GGRT help desk at 877-444-1188 or email ghgreporting@epa.gov.


• Only Part 75 sources report using CBS/ECMPS. If you are a non-Part 75 source required to report for the GHGRP, you only need to register for e-GGRT; non-Part 75 sources WILL NOT be added to CBS.

Agents

• CBS Agents are not being imported into e-GGRT.


• Agents for e-GGRT must be assigned in e-GGRT, and can be different from the CBS agents.

If You Have Questions

• Changes to Representatives for CAMD purposes, and subsequently e-GGRT, can be made via CBS. Contact Laurel DeSantis at 202-343-9191 with questions about the Certificate of Representation or agent process.


• Questions about CBS user names and passwords should be directed to one of the following people:
  
  
  • Karen VanSickle 202-343-9220
  • Kirk Nabors 202-343-9171
  • Paula Branch 202-343-9168
  • Alex Salpeter 202-343-9157


• Please use any of the following resources for more information about registration or any other questions regarding reporting GHGRP:
  
  
  • Peter Kokopeli 202-343-9085
  • View the e-GGRT Help Website
  • Call the e-GGRT Help Desk 877-444-1188
  • Send an email to ghgreporting@epa.gov
  • View the e-GGRT tutorials

As a part of ECMPS security, users must enter a valid password when using the ECMPS Client Tool. The password is subject to a number of rules that affect your ability to maintain a valid password.

One important security feature is that the password expires every 90 days. Users should receive emails with reminders about changing their passwords. These are provided well in advance of the expiration date in order to give users plenty of time to change their passwords.

Entering an incorrect password three times in a row will lock a user's account. Passwords are cached in the Client Tool in order to prevent users from having to enter a password for every interaction with the EPA Host System.

During a synchronization or submission of data, the user's password is sent several times to the EPA Host System in order to provide proper authentication. If, during the synchronization or submission, a user changes the password via the CAMD Business System, the user might lock the account. The reason is that the Client Tool will continue to use the old, cached password to attempt to authenticate even after the new password has been established. This is because the Client Tool is not aware of the new password because the user has not entered that password via the Client Tool. If the Client Tool attempts during the synchronization or submission to use the old password three times in a row, the user account will be locked.

In order to avoid this type of problem, we would recommend that users only change their passwords when the Client Tool is closed. After changing the password, the user will be able to provide the new password when the Client Tool is started again and the user logs in to the EPA Host System.

Labels: Technical Support Tip

In a previous post, information was given regarding registering for e-GGRT in order to assist sources with their reporting for the Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR). This post provides information for sources who for the MRR have elected to determine their CO2 emissions using Part 75 methodology.

Sources that report data through the ECMPS Client Tool for ARP, RGGI, or CAIR, may elect to use Part 75 methodology to determine CO2 emissions in order to comply with the Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR). This includes sources that are not required under these applicable Part 75 programs to include any CO2M records.

Those sources that elect to use this approach must report CO2M data (and all part 75 quality assurance data related to it) through the ECMPS Client Tool. However, the annual totals for those units which elect to use this methodology must also be reported through e-GGRT in the proper units. In other words, the CO2 data submitted through the ECMPS Client Tool will provide for the quality assurance of the data, but the official submission of data to comply with the MRR must be submitted through e-GGRT along with other data required under the MRR for the facility.

More information about reporting through e-GGRT can be found here:
https://ghgreporting.epa.gov

Due to a planned outage, the EPA Host System will be unavailable on Sunday, January 9, 2011 from 8:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. EST. During this time, Client Tool users must use the Client Tool "offline". Note, this scheduled maintenance outage will also affect access to the CAMD Business System (CBS) and Data and Maps.

Labels: Scheduled Outage

The 2010 Q4 Reporting period begins today. Sources required to report emissions data under the Acid Rain Program (ARP), Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have 30 days 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.

Resubmission Requests

Requests to resubmit QA or emissions data should be made using the Resubmission Request Form.

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