AES Training

If you don't already have one, you must create an account yourself by visiting the GreenPort page, then fill out all the information on the access request form and submit it to the address provided. When we receive the form we will add AES*Online to your account, with access to the facilities requested. Note that you cannot add AES to your account yourself; you must submit the request form. Please do not create an account if you already have one, as any previous information can be updated and existing accesses altered.

You created your username and password, and they do not expire. Once logged in, click the "AES*Online" button, and then select the "edit" option next to the facility you wish to work on first. Each facility report will be handled identically.

​Your first step each year should be to review and update any information that has changed since last year. Any changes have to be made by us, and will update overnight. Please contact your regional or county staff first, and then try the DEP central office staff referenced above.
Click on "Facility Details" and verify the contact information we have for this plant. You may have some or all of these; the first two being the most important to this report:
LOCAD – locational address
REOFF – The 'Responsible Official' of the facility, identified in the permit
FIRM – inventory contact
PRMT – permit contact
FEEAD – emissions fee mailing address
CONS – consultant
CORP – corporate contact
INSP – inspection contact

Click on "SubFacilities" and verify that all of the equipment that was active during the reporting year is listed here. The only types shown here will be FMLs, Combustion Units, Processes, Incinerators, and Control Devices that burn a fuel.
If the unit was shut down permanently, it should be removed.
If the unit was inactive, but will operate again, it can be removed or zeros reported.
If the unit does not appear on the list but was active, we will have to add it.
If anything is wrong with the name or description, we will have to alter it.

Click on "Sub Facility/SCC Status" and verify that all of the fuels burned or materials processed by each subfacility for the reporting year are active, and any not used are inactive. You can use the checkboxes and the "submit request" button at the bottom to send a request to your reviewer, or contact them directly. If any of the fuels or materials are wrong or missing, you'll have to contact us directly.
AES*Online will force you to report all subfacilities and fuels or materials that are active, and you will not be able to report those that are inactive or missing.

​A Fuel Material Location, if used, applies test results to all of the equipment sharing the same fuel. Each year the following characteristics must be reported, along with the date sampled:
% Ash
% Sulfur
Btu per Unit (lb/gal/cu ft)
Note, for natural gas only, you can use these values: 0% Ash, 0% Sulfur, 1050 Btu. You still need to enter a date.

​You can enter this data either one complete subfacility at a time, or work through the information in any order you like. The only limit is once you've started a particular screen, you need to either finish it or cancel it.
Select a subfacility by clicking on its name or number.
Select the first of the 'SCC's used' for a fuel or material. If this is a fuel, and not from an FML, you must enter at least one fuel test as explained above for FMLs.
Click on "Add New Schedule".
Enter the dates over which you operated this equipment on this fuel or material, or accept the default of January 1st to December 31st.
Enter total days and hours, and days per week if known, that you ran on this fuel or material.
Choose the units you will report your throughputs in. This is not automatically chosen!
Enter the amounts used for each month. Since the units were chosen previously, correct the numbers to them. For example:
Units chosen – Million Gallons.
Amount used in January – 3,400,000 gallons.
Number entered – "3.4"
You may break the year into multiple schedules; just make sure none of the ranges overlap each other. Repeat this step for each SCC used by the subfacility.
Click on "Manual Emissions" to enter the emissions for just this subfacility, summarized for all materials or fuels used. For the Criteria/GHG Pollutants, you must choose a calculation method and enter a number. For the HAPs and any others, you may be able to select the "Use Factor" checkbox to have the department calculate these amounts for you after we accept your submission.

​Click on "Misc. Emissions" to report emissions from equipment not listed above, and generally of a smaller (<10T) magnitude.
Click on "Pollutant Summary" to report the total amount of each pollutant from the facility, including subfacilities and miscellaneous sources. The "Facility Estimate" column will appear blank, but you need to verify the amounts to the left of it by entering the total yourself. Clicking on the pollutant name will break out the amounts entered for each subfacility.
Click on "Fuel Usage Summary" to report the total of each fuel used throughout the plant. This includes the amounts reported for each subfacility, and any miscellaneous usage you think significant.

​Click on "Document Attachments" to upload files up to 1 MB each for submitting with your report. Databases and any executable files will not be accepted.
Click on "Notes" to view, edit, or create further notes concerning your report. You can write notes throughout the report by clicking on the "New Note" link in the upper right corner at any time.

​Editors and submitters can do this by clicking the "Start Submission" link. Until every category of information has a green check, you cannot continue to the next step. When you do, you must save the PDF, at which point the report becomes 'Complete'. No emails are sent yet.

​Only the submitter can do this. When the report is complete, the submitter will see a button labelled "Continue". When clicked, the PDF will display, with another "Continue" button. When that is clicked, a final "yes, submit" button will appear. Once pressed, emails are sent to all accounts with access to this facility, and the report will be submitted.

​You will receive an email stating that the report was accepted.

​You will receive an email stating that the report was rejected, with the reasons for rejection listed. You must log back in to address any issues and resubmit.
Address all "verify" icons. Either click on the icon to keep the data the same or type over the data with new information and save it. The icon will then change to "acknowledged" . In either case you should write a note to explain.
You may also update information not flagged. A "modified" icon will appear for our attention.
Run checklist, generate PDF, and submit as above.

AES*Online is one of many applications on the department's GreenPort website. Only one GreenPort account is ever necessary; some applications you can just sign yourself up, while others, like AES*Online, you have to submit the request form. See the heading above “Obtain a GreenPort account with access to AES*Online and your facility” to learn how.

​By regulation, this report must be submitted by the person identified as the 'responsible official' of the facility. They are named in the permit, and that information is held in our database. Please review the definition of responsible official and note that in some cases another person can be designated to submit.

​Just one. See the previous answer.

​There could be several reasons. First, because you need to request access to it in writing. We don't know you need access until you contact us directly. Second, perhaps you created a new account on your own, and assumed it would have all of the accesses your previous account had. Third, someone else in your company may have informed us that you no longer needed access to it, so it was removed. Finally, the requirement for reporting emissions may have been removed from your company, so we went in and removed all account accesses to it. This prevents errors when you click on buttons that now lead nowhere.

Since you created it, you will have to note that information somewhere yourself. You can use the links below the login boxes to recover your username, then password. We can only see your username.

​There could be several reasons. First, because you need to request access to it in writing. We don't know you need access until you contact us directly. Second, someone else in your company may have informed us that you no longer needed access to it, so it was removed. Third, the requirement for reporting emissions may have been removed from your company, so we went in and removed all account accesses to it. This prevents errors when you click on buttons that lead nowhere now. Feel free to contact us if none of these reasons are correct.

​This is a difficult question as it depends on several factors: Do you collect information now on computer or paper? Would you prefer software that we are responsible for, or you? The Online system requires you to type all of your information in, with the possibility of mistakes. It is faster to get going, but you tend to forget from year to year how to use it. The XML system depends on you setting up the file template properly, mapping all of your data to the appropriate locations in that template, and maintaining that information from year to year when any changes take place at the company.

You can't. Notify either your regional inspector or us. We will make the changes in our database and they should appear immediately.

​Which pieces of equipment appear online are controlled by whether we have 'activated' or 'inactivated' it in our database. To change that, you will need to contact your regional or county inspector since they are familiar with your facility and are charged with maintaining the information about it. It's always good to go over that list early in January.

​Which fuels or materials appear for any piece of equipment are controlled by which ones are 'active' or 'inactive' in our database. To change the status of an existing scc you need to notify your regional or county inspector. All of your past reported scc's show up on the "SubFacility/SCC Status" screen, so you could use the checkboxes on that screen, and submit the request to turn them on or off. You can also call or email your inspector. For a completely new scc that has never been used before, you will need to do that. It's always good to make sure that list is correct before entering any data.

​Fuel or material usage – Schedules screen.
Emissions from equipment – Manual Emissions screen.
Emissions from the Plant – Pollutant Summary screen.
Fuel test results – The appropriate scc screen for the equipment, or FML screen for that fuel.
Fuel Usage for the Plant – Fuel Usage Summary screen.
Miscellaneous Equipment emissions – Misc. Emissions screen.
Emission or VOC Worksheets – Document Attachments screen.

​The Criteria/Required section is the area where total emissions of VOCs and PM10 are entered. The amounts listed in the HAP sections are subtotals going into those totals. Sometimes, HAP emission factors will give a number higher than a 'total' VOC or PM10 emission factor. In this case, you have to go with the number you believe is more accurate, and correct the other. For instance, if the particulate HAPs were higher than the PM10 above, you might either raise the PM10 number, or lower the individual HAPs. You could lower the HAPs by reducing each by the proportion of the difference from the total above.

​This just means we have no emissions factor for this pollutant in our database for the scc you are using. It does not remove your requirement to report the emission amount or the calculation method you used. It is not a method in itself. In the case of HAPS, you will not be able to have us calculate the amount with the checkbox function.

​This is your estimate of the total amount of each pollutant leaving plant property. It includes both sub-facility generated and miscellaneous emissions. This information is required by regulation. We don't assume that it automatically is the sum of subfacility + miscellaneous, so we need you to verify that.

​These are numbers that provide a way of calculating an emissions amount. They represent an amount of pollutant given off by processing or burning a material or fuel in a specific type of equipment. The EPA developed them based on collected stack testing research over large areas and many years. Even so, they are constantly being adjusted, and aren't considered as accurate as actual emissions measurements.

​No. The department does not want to provide your emissions amount for you, nor declare the emission factors method the standard method to be used.

​A missing fuel that has an appropriate scc and was entered properly should automatically display in this screen, but occasionally we turn up a bug in our database. Usually it's a problem behind the scenes in our database with either an FML or scc record. You'll have to contact us to correct it.

​The checklist routine verifies that you have filled in every last field required and that there are no basic reporting rules being broken. The reason is listed on that screen somewhere, though it may not jump out at you. Each error listed is a link to the page necessary to fix the error.

​In order to change the PDF, you will have to 'Cancel' the existing one first and then generate a new one once you've made any updates you desire.

​No! In our usage "Complete" indicates a report that is in all ways ready to be submitted. It has not been submitted, so you have not met the reporting requirement.

​You will be notified via email, and then need to log in to GreenPort/AES*Online and address all of the issues that have been raised. In the email will be specific items identified by the reviewer, and those will also be listed in the Notes section of the report. Look above at the last item in the "General overview of the process" section.

​One of two reasons is most likely – either you have not actually submitted yet, or there is an issue with the email address of your account. The email address could be wrong, or your spam filter could be blocking it. The system generates emails on submission, rejection, or acceptance only.