ECMPS Support

The 2011 Q1 Reporting period begins on Friday, April 1st. 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.

The 2011 Q1 version of the Client Tool includes a new report viewer--Microsoft Report Viewer 2010. The upgrade to this new report viewer helped fix a number of outstanding report issues.

The new report viewer is installed during the upgrade from a previous version or during the full installation of the Client Tool if it is being installed for the first time on a computer.

The person who is installing the new report viewer will need to have administrative rights on the computer on which the Client Tool is being installed or upgraded.

If you do not have administrative rights and you attempt to complete the installation or the upgrade, you might receive an error during the installation which indicates that the report viewer cannot be installed.

It is not necessary to complete the upgrade or the installation again. Instead, only the report viewer installation needs to be run again. However, this time, it needs to be run by someone with sufficient administrative rights.

A copy of the report viewer installation is found in the "Downloads" folder of the Client Tool. If you used the default installation folders, the "Downloads" folder will be C:\Program Files\ECMPS\Downloads

This installation file can be run in order to complete the installation of the new report viewer. The installation must be run by someone who has rights to install software on the computer.

See this FAQ for more information.

There

Labels: FAQ

On March 3, 2010, the Shared Database Users' Group held a web meeting, and we, at technical support, wanted to say thanks to all who participated.

It is always helpful to get users' feedback on what is working, what is not working, and what suggestions users have for improvements.

All suggested enhancements, whether they are received from the Shared Database Users' Group or through emails send to technical support, are presented to CAMD for further discussion. Then CAMD determines whether those enhancements should be included in a future release of the Client Tool. Each of these is tracked on the Requested Enhancements page.

We also think that each meeting has proved to be a valuable opportunity for participants to learn from one another, and we assume that future meetings will continue to have that benefit. The meeting notes were sent out last week to everyone who is on the Shared Database Users' Group email list.

If you are not already participating in the Shared Database Users' Group and you want to be part of the next meeting, send an email to technical support to request your name be added to the list of invitees.

The meetings are held quarterly usually within a month after the previous reporting period. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held in early May. We do ask that participants be current users of a shared database configuration or planning to establish a shared database configuration.

Labels: Shared Database, Technical Support

As was noted in a previous post, one of the new requirements for running the 2011 Q1 version of the Client Tool is the Microsoft .NET Framework 4. This is an upgrade from the previous version of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

Whether you are updating the Client Tool from a previous version or installing it for the first time on your computer, you will need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installed in order to run the 2011 Q1 version of the Client Tool.

Users who are not able to install software due to insufficient computer rights, should contact their IT departments as soon as possible in order to begin the process of having Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installed on their computers.

Please contact technical support regarding any questions about this change.

Labels: Technical Support

Last June, the URL for the ECMPS Support Website changed from http://ecmps.pqa.com/ to http://ecmps.camdsupport.com/ Since then, in order to have a smoother transition to the new URL, the old URL was maintained as an alias. That meant that users could access the support Website with either URL.

As of Friday, March 11, 2011, the old URL is no longer an alias. In order to access the ECMPS Support Website, users should use the http://ecmps.camdsupport.com/ URL. Users who have bookmarked the old URL or have it written down as a reference should make a note of this change.

Labels: Technical Support

The 2011 Quarter 1 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 should download and install the 2011 Q1 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, be submitted to ECMPS Technical Support.

As mentioned previously, the next release of the Client Tool, which is scheduled for March 9, 2011, will include new data fields for reporting data related to the Protocol Gas Verification Program (PGVP) and Air Emissions Testing Bodies (AETB) certifications.

Sources will be required to include these data after the new provisions become effective. For PGVP, the rule changes will become effective 6 months after the proposed rule changes have been signed. In the case of AETB, the period is 12 months after the signing of the rule changes. As of this post, the rule changes have not been signed.

To assist with preparation for submitting these data, the EPA issued a guidance document. The document was first released on December 16, 2010. It has been since revised and now added to the support Website under Reporting Instructions.

Any questions related to the reporting of AETB and PGVP data may be directed toward technical support.

The 2011 Q1 Release of the Client Tool is scheduled to take place on March 9, 2011.

In the new release, there are a number of new features which are scheduled to be included. The full list of what features are included will be made available in the Release Notes which are published at the time of the release.

Here is a list of the new features which are scheduled to be included in the 2011 Q1 release:

• Date range added to the Purge Data functionality. This allows users to select by dates which data are purged rather than having to purge all of the data for a data type.


• For shared database users, allow multiple users to import data at the same time.


• Added "Back" button on various reports to make it easier to return to criteria selection dialog.


• Added fuel type filter in LME emissions module.


• Added "Actual Feet of Stack Flow / Second (AFSEC)" span code for Flow.


• Added Unit Monitor Certification Deadline and Emissions Recording Begin Data as columns on the unit program information screen.


• Modified the Submission Report to allow display results from multiple ORIS codes.


• Allow for the submission of data related to the Protocol Gas Verification Program (PGVP) and Air Emissions Testing Bodies (AETB) certifications. The reporting of these data will begin after the new provisions become effective (six months after the proposed rule requirements are finalized for the PGVP and 12- months after for the AETB requirements). As of this post, the proposed rule requirements have not been finalized. For more information, please view the guidance document.


• Changes to the XML schemas to account for data to be reported for PGVP and AETB. Data which are in the format of older schemas will import into the Client Tool. (Backward compatibility).


• Various report bugs fixed as a result of updating to the latest report viewer.


• New installations that take take advantage of 64-bit Windows operating systems.

In addition, with the March 2011 release, new Reporting Instructions will be released. The changes to the Reporting Instructions will be related to the changes for AETB and PGVP reporting and to include all of the items which have been in the Addendum to the Reporting Instructions.

Finally, as previously noted, the 2011 Q1 release of the Client Tool will require the Microsoft .NET 4.0 Framework. Information about this change is available in the previous post.

Any questions about these new features and changes, should be submitted to technical support.