ECMPS Support

No ECMPS Meeting at the May EPRI CEMS User Group Meeting in Cleveland

Over the past several years while ECMPS was being prepared for its launch, CAMD held ECMPS Stakeholder meetings in association with the EPRI CEMS User Group meetings which were held every spring. These were valuable meetings for discussing the new process, demonstrating the Client Tool, answering questions, and receiving feedback. CAMD and ECMPS Technical Support are very appreciative of all of the questions and feedback that were provided by users through those meetings. That interaction with users was an important part of the success of ECMPS.

Since the last ECMPS Stakeholder meeting in St. Louis, ECMPS has completed a year of mandatory use. During that year, the process and the Client Tool have continued to mature. However, no major functionality has been added to the Client Tool. And, as we see from technical support tickets, the vast majority of users' questions are very specific to their data. Given this situation, CAMD has decided to not host an ECMPS meeting at the May 2010 CEMS User Group Meeting in Cleveland.

Feedback and suggested enhancements which come from users are still very important, and CAMD would appreciate if users would provide that feedback through technical support. In addition, as in years past, CAMD will host a booth in the exhibition hall of the CEMS User Group meeting, and ECMPS users are encouraged to come by to visit with the staff who will be there to receive feedback and answer questions.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

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

U.S. EPA's Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) has just recently posted the registration page for the Spring 2009 Stakeholder Meeting. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m at the St. Louis Convention Center. The ECMPS Stakeholder Meeting will be held in conjunction with the EPRI 2009 CEM User Group Conference and Exhibit.

The following topics will be discussed:

• Results from 2008 ECMPS Reporting and Lessons Learned
• Access and Use of Previously Submitted Data
• Emissions Submission and Resubmission Processes
• Technical Support Process
• Client Tool Demo of New Functionality/Enhancements/Reports
• Question and Answer Session

The meeting is free and open to ECMPS stakeholders.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

The presentations from the Arlington Stakeholder Meeting have been posted. All of the material which was presented at the November 19, 2008 ECMPS Stakeholder Meeting have been posted on the ECMPS Support Web site.

The presentations are audiovisual presentations broken into the natural sections of the meeting. This allows you to listen to any of the sections of the meeting you would like to listen to rather than trying to find a particular section of the meeting from a longer presentation. These sections of the meeting cover the necessary areas that stakeholders need to understand about ECMPS as we move forward toward the mandatory use of ECMPS beginning with the submission of 2008Q1 data.

In addition, for the first time, the Client Tool demonstration part has been included. The demo covers all of the essential areas of the Client Tool along with practical tips for how to best use the Client Tool to evaluate and submit your data.

Please provide us with any feedback on these presentations using the Tutorials and Stakeholder Meeting Feedback form.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

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

The next ECMPS Stakeholder meeting will be held at the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 from 1:00 p.m until 5:00 p.m.

Note that this will be the last ECMPS Stakeholder meeting prior to the first quarter of mandatory reporting of Part 75 data using the ECMPS Client Tool. All sources are required to use the ECMPS Client Tool to report data beginning with the first quarter 2009 data.

If you are not able to attend the meeting, audiovisual materials from the meeting will be posted on the ECMPS Support Web site soon after the meeting.

The topics which will be covered during the meeting include:

• Preparing for ECMPS production environment
• Correcting common reporting problems
• Setting up ECMPS agents
• Client Tool demonstration
• New functionality/enhancements
• ECMPS training plans
• Results from 2008 ECMPS reporting
• 2009 Quarter 1 release schedule

For more information and to register, click here.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

On May 13, 2008, prior to the 2008 EPRI CEM User Group conference, the Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) of the U.S. EPA held an ECMPS Stakeholder meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

The presentations from that stakeholder meeting have been posted on the Web site. Note, the presentations are both audio and visual. Be sure to enable the audio on your computer in order to be able to hear the the presentations. You can also use the closed captioning feature of the presentations by clicking on the "CC" button on the right side of the play bar. The Stakeholder Meeting presentations can be accessed by clicking here.

The topics which are covered in the presentations include:

• Project Update
• ECMPS in Production
• Transitioning to ECMPS
• Adding ECMPS Agents
• Installing the Production Version
• Correcting Your Monitoring Plan
• Resubmitting Data
• CAIR SO2 Certification Applications
• Mercury
• 2008 Testing
• Training Plans

We would like to have your feedback about the presentations. To provide your feedback, simply click on the link provided on the Stakeholder Meeting presentations Web page or click here.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

There was a very good turnout at the Stakeholder meeting on May 13th in Nashville. If you missed the meeting or you attended the meeting and want to review the meeting materials, the meeting presentations, not including the software demo, will be put on the ECMPS Testing Web site in the next few weeks.

The Nashville Stakeholder presentations will be similar to the presentations from the December Stakeholder Meeting in which the audio is provided along with the slides. This is great way to review the material at your own pace.

I think that I speak for everyone who helped put on the Stakeholder meeting, when I say that we had a great time at the meeting and in Music City. It was nice to catch up with familiar faces and also meet some new folks. We appreciate all of the questions and comments at the meeting and in the booth in the exhibition hall at EPRI. We know that your feedback will help to make ECMPS a much better product.

Here is a picture of everyone who was involved in hosting the meeting in Nashville:



Jennifer Johnson (PQA), Drew Price (PQA), David Ward (PQA), Laurie Desantis (EPA), Ingrid Thomson (PQA), Craig Hillock (EPA), and Matt Boze (EPA)

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

During the ECMPS Stakeholder meeting on Tuesday in Nashville, a number of resources were mentioned. These included resources for general information about ECMPS, training materials, registration Web pages, and much more. Included in the meeting packet was a handout which listed a number of these resources. In this post, the resources are listed again with links for everything which is available via the Internet. I would like to especially highlight the tutorials which were mentioned, but not demonstrated. The tutorials are excellent resources for learning how to use the ECMPS Client Tool to report your data to the EPA. These are in the same vein as the MDC tutorials, but, by using the latest in presentation technology, they are most certainly the next generation in tutorials. Each tutorial is a brief (10 minutes or less), informative audiovisual presentation which focuses on a specific topic related to the ECMPS Client Tool. The tutorials do not take long to access online, and they each include closed captioning. Currently, there are five of tutorials available to be both viewed online or downloaded to your computer. Many more tutorials covering a wide range of topics related to the Client Tool will be released over the coming months. A new post will be made on this blog when a new tutorial is released.

EPA ECMPS Website

• Reporting Instructions
• Schema Documents
• Check Specifications
• Monitoring Plan Test files
• QA Test files
• Emissions Test files

PQA ECMPS Website

• Tutorials
• FAQs
• Blog
• Stakeholder Meeting Presentations
• Client Tool Help Files (In Client Tool)

Registration

• Register to test with the Client Tool Preview (CTP)
• Register to submit official data in 2008 via ECMPS
• Register to submit initial monitoring plans and certification applications for CAIR SO2

Technical Support (EPA receives copies of all technical support emails)

• Client Tool Preview (Testing)
• Production

Labels: Industry Testing, Reporting Instructions, Stakeholder Meeting, Tutorial

The ECMPS Testing Blog is on the road this week. From May 14-16, the EPRI CEM User Group meeting is being held in Nashville, Tennessee. As has been the case for a number of years, the Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) of EPA is hosting an ECMPS Stakeholder meeting immediately prior to the EPRI meeting. This year's meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13th.

The meeting will cover a variety of agenda items including:

• ECMPS in Production
• Transitioning to ECMPS
• CAIR SO2 Certification Applications
• Client Tool Demonstration
• 2008 Industry Testing
• Training Plans

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

If you are not able to attend the meeting, but are in Nashville for the CEM User Group Meeting, be sure to drop by the EPA booth in the exhibition area.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

The next ECMPS Stakeholder meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Marriott Renaissance Nashville Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information on the meeting, including how to register, click here. The registration deadline is April 25, 2008.

Topics will include:

• Preparing for ECMPS Production in 2008
• Client Tool Demonstration of New Functionality and Enhancements
• ECMPS Training Plans
• ECMPS Testing in 2008
• Certification Application Process
• Results from First Quarter 2008 ECMPS Reporting

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

On December 5, 2007, the Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) held an ECMPS Stakeholder meeting in Arlington, Virginia.

The presentations from that stakeholder meeting have been posted on the Web site. Note, the presentations are both audio and visual. Be sure to enable the audio on your computer in order to be able to hear the the presentations. The Stakeholder Meeting presentations can be accessed by clicking here.

We would like to have your feedback about the presentations. To provide your feedback, simply click on the link provided on the Stakeholder Meeting presentations Web page or click here.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

As was announced at the Stakeholder meeting in Arlington, Virgina this past Wednesday, CAMD has added a registration page for those who will be switching over to report via ECMPS in 2008. Click here to access the registration page.

• Registration is by facility. All units at the registered facility must report using ECMPS.


• There are registration deadlines for each reporting period. You must submit your registration by the deadline in order for you to report in that reporting period.


• You can register up to five facilities with one registration form.


• After making the switch to ECMPS, you cannot use MDC or ETS-FTP to submit your data unless you first contact CAMD.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting, Transition to ECMPS

As was mentioned in a previous post, an ECMPS Stakeholder meeting will be held at the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, Virginia on December 5th from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. As of today, there are still a number of spots available for the meeting. To register for the ECMPS Stakeholder meeting, click here.

Note, there will be a CAIR and CAMR Training meeting on the same day at the same location from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. There is a separate registration for this meeting. To register for the CAIR and CAMR Training meeting, click here.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting

The next ECMPS Stakeholder meeting will be on December 5th in Arlington, Virginia. For more information on the meeting, including how to register, click here.

Labels: Stakeholder Meeting