Admin Actions and Questions
User Management
If you are using the standard account configuration
Administrative-level users at the company licensing MCast™ are responsible for account management. Any account granted "Admin" level credentials can invite an unlimited number of user and administrative accounts to their instance. They can also delete any account on the instance at any time.
Admin users can perform account management by opening the "Settings" tab of the application and selecting "Account" > "Manage Accounts." To change an account's role, delete an account, or revoke an invitation to create an account, click the ellipses (...) on the far right side of the given account.
To invite a new user to MCast™, click "Invite New Users"
- When you click "Invite," an email will be sent to the invited user by forecast-noreply@marquetteenergyanalytics.com
- That email will contain a link that the invited user must follow to create their new MCast™ account
- After 24 hours, that account creation link will expire. If the invited user was unable to create their account within 24 hours, then an Admin user should re-invite them to join MCast™
Note
The MCast™ invitation emails will come from forecast-noreply@marquetteenergyanalytics.com. You may need to whitelist that email address with your IT team to receive the email in your inbox.
If you are using your Microsoft Account to log in
The person(s) responsible for managing your Microsoft Entra ID is responsible for managing accounts in "Enterprise Applications." From here users can be added or removed at desired permission levels.
Our Account Management Policy
MEA does not perform account management
We take data security seriously. We want to ensure that you, the licensing customer, have full control over the users who do and do not have access to the data within your MCast™ instance at all times. For that reason, it is Marquette Energy Analytics policy to not perform any account management after delivering a new MCast™ instance to a customer. Account management is the sole responsibility of administrative-level users at the licensing customer's company.
We are happy to assist and instruct you in user management, but we will not create, edit, or delete accounts from your instance.
Account Types
Three different account types can be configured by users. All three have different permission levels, which are detailed in the table below.
- Admin
- User
- Read Only
| Admin | User | Read Only | |
|---|---|---|---|
| View & download data | YES | YES | YES |
| Enter or edit load data | YES | YES | |
| Generate forecasts | YES | YES | |
| Set pins (automatic & manual) | YES | YES | |
| Manage your account | YES | YES | YES |
| Manage other accounts | YES | ||
| Manage email distribution list | YES | ||
| Manage output file configurations | YES | ||
| Manage API keys | YES | YES |
Display differences for the various accounts
Admin accounts that sign in through their Microsoft Account will not see the options for managing accounts because user management is handled directly through Microsoft Entra ID.
Read Only accounts will not see the 3 menu bars in the top left corner of the header because the controls found under that menu all require a User or Admin level account to perform.
User Management FAQ
Can I give someone access to view the data but not run forecasts?
Yes. Our load forecasting products support the creation of Read-Only accounts, but the process for setting up these accounts is different depending on whether you use Microsoft Entra ID accounts to log in, or you use the built-in account management system.
If you're using Entra ID, your sysadmin can handle assigning accounts the Read-Only role, or changing an existing account's role to Read-Only.
If you're using the built-in mechanism to manage accounts, anyone with an admin account can add and remove new accounts at any permission level through the "Account" tab.
For further information on account options, see the User Management section.
I invited a user to create an account, but they never received an email.
Sometimes when a user is invited to create an MCast™ account, they end up not receiving the invitation to their inbox. There could be several reasons for this - see below for common troubleshooting tips.
- The email is caught in some sort of firewall: This is the most common reason. To mitigate this, ensure that the email address forecast-noreply@marquetteenergyanalytics.com is whitelisted by your IT team. Once the email has been whitelisted, it's recommended that you resend the invite link to the user.
- There is a typo in the email address: This is the second most common reason. To double check what email address was invited, open up "Settings" > "Account" > "Manage Accounts." In the list you see now, any user who has been invited but has not created an account yet will have "INVITED" listed under their "Account Status," and the invited email will be listed under "Username." If you cannot see the entire email, mousing over the email address will display it in full. If the email is indeed incorrect, delete the incorrect email and invite the correct account.
If neither of the tips above resolves the issue, reach out to support@marquetteenergyanalytics.com
Setting up Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Active Directory)
Microsoft Entra ID is the single-sign-on (or "SSO") protocol associated with company-specific Microsoft accounts. MCast™ supports using Entra ID to sign into the website using the Microsoft credentials that your company manages. This allows the IT department at your company to be responsible for who gets what access to MCast™ and the data within it. MCast™ integrates Entra ID through OpenID Connect (OIDC), and we do not support SAML.
If you're interested in transitioning from the default MCast™ account management to using Entra ID, you should connect the Marquette Energy Analytics team with the relevant IT personnel who manage Microsoft single-sign-on credentials at your organization. It often takes a working meeting or two to ensure that the transition to Entra ID is completed successfully.
Note
There is no cost associated with modifying your MCast™ instance to use Microsoft Entra ID.
Configuration Settings
The Configuration section, found on the SETTINGS pane, allows users to manage how they label and receive data from the application. The ability to modify the settings in this section is restricted to "Admin" accounts only. Changes to these settings will change the default automated settings for all data sent out by the application. If you need help or have any questions about a configuration change you'd like to make here, reach out to support@marquetteenergyanalytics.com
Warning
Changes to configuration settings will impact all of the product's users at your company. Any unintended change to configs can completely break automatic processes that you may have set up.
Manage Emails / Manage Service Emails
Users who sign in to MCast™ using a website-specific username and password will see this section titled "Manage Service Emails" and they will only have the option to add, edit, and delete new service emails here.
Users who sign in to MCast™ using their Microsoft Account will see this section titled "Manage Emails", with two different options: "Service Emails" and "User Emails."
- "Service Emails" are emails that you want to receive notification when a forecast event occurs, but that are NOT associated with an individual user (for example, a gas control group may have a collective team email address that team members all have access to). You may add new service emails, edit their permissions, and revoke their access in this section. For further information on the options available, see Managing Service Emails
- "User Emails" are all of the emails associated with MCast™ users at your organization. Because MCast™ cannot check who at a given organization has had access to the site granted or revoked, a user's email must be deleted from here if you wish to remove a user's access to MCast™ data entirely. These users manage their own email settings by following the instructions at Managing Personal Email Notification Preferences.
API
This section provides documentation links to all users of MCast™. "Admin" and "User" accounts will also see options for API Key Management, allowing you to delete existing API keys and create new ones.
The links will take users to the MCast™ API Help documentation and to the "API Reference" documentation for testing keys and calls.
Set Automatic Pinning Periods
This section allows a user to set the automatic pinning periods for each intraday forecast that they license (if you only license one intraday forecast, then you will only be able to set a single pinning period). Once set, then each day the latest forecast generated in each period will be marked as the "pinned" forecast for that period.
See "What are pinned forecasts?" for more information.
Manage Output Files
This section allows company admins to configure the output files generated after each forecast.
Warning
Changes in this section will affect files uploaded to the SFTP site, files in any emails, and files downloaded through the website. Unintended changes can completely break automatic processes. Before making changes, ensure that any processes using MCast™ output files are also changed accordingly.
For each Daily forecast generation, three CSV files can be enabled and configured:
Daily Forecast File
Default name: DailyOpAreaData.csv
Daily Weather File
Default name: DailyWthrStnData.csv
Hourly Weather File
Default name: HourlyWthrStnData.csv
For each Hourly forecast generation, two CSV files can be enabled and configured:
Hourly Forecast File
Default name: HourlyOpAreaData.csv
Hourly Weather File
Default name: HourlyWthrStnData.csv
For each file, you can configure all of the following data points to be included:
- How missing data is represented in the file
- Days of observed data included in the file
- Whether to include the component forecasts that went into the final forecast
- See note below: "What are component forecasts?"
- Whether to include component load data (if you are uploading component load data to MCast™)
- Whether to include subtotal data (if you are receiving subtotal forecasts)
- What each column is named
- Which columns to show
- Full list of columns available in the table below
What are component forecasts?
Component forecasts are only available for Daily forecasts
The GasDay forecast is made up of 3 different components: the LR (Linear Regression), ANN (Artificial Neural Network), and the DPP (Dynamic Post Processor; the "final" GasDay forecast). If turned on, this will show a column for each component model's results.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Combined Load (or Net Flow) | The forecasted load values and the observed load values in one column |
| Forecasted Load | The forecasted load values |
| Observed Load | The reported observed load values |
| Forecast Timestamp | The timestamp of when the forecast was created |
| Temp | The average temperature for a given time period |
| Wind | The average wind for a given time period |
| High | The highest temperature value for a given time period |
| Low | The lowest temperature value for a given time period |
| HDD | The average daily forecasted Heating Degree Days |
| HDDW | The average daily forecast Wind-adjusted Heating Degree Days |
Note
To change the name of one of these files, you must reach out to someone at Marquette Energy Analytics directly. The file name may include gas day, date and time produced, and/or intraday forecast number
A Note About File Names and Timestamps
Customization of your CSV file allows for many ways to represent the time of a particular forecast. Commonly, a forecast is identified by the specific date and time at which it was generated; this is referred to as the "forecast run time". Having the forecast run time information in the filename of your CSV helps when forecasts need to be identified or sorted by their age.
Another way to characterize a forecast or set of forecasts is by the "gas date". The Daily forecasting models generate an eight-day forecast, and the first of those 8 forecast days is the gas date (it is also referred to as "Day 0" of a forecast). There is no time element associated with a gas date; it represents a period of time rather than an exact moment. Every forecast for the same gas date has the same 8-day forecast horizon. Having this element in a file name can help identify or sort files by which data is included.
A third way to characterize a forecast or set of forecasts is by the "run date". The calendar date on which a forecast is generated is its run date. This is simply the date element of the forecast run time.
The gas date and the run date of a forecast often have the same date element, as typically a forecast is run for the current day. However, when a forecast is run after midnight, the calendar date may be ahead of the gas date, producing two separate values for the gas date and the run date. The gas date is also different from the run date if a reported load value in the past gets adjusted and past forecasts affected by the adjustment are re-run. These forecasts will have the gas date corresponding to the day 0 of the forecast, but a run date corresponding to the date at which they were re-run.
Example
If on Jan 4, a load value is adjusted for Jan 1, forecasts will be re-run from Jan 1 through Jan 4; these forecasts will have gas date values of Jan 1, Jan 2, Jan 3, and Jan 4 respectively, but all will have a run date value of Jan 4.
We can include the gas date, run date, and/or forecast run time in the name of a CSV file. These settings can be adjusted at any time by contacting a Marquette Energy Analytics support team member directly or by reaching out to support@marquetteenergyanalytics.com.
File name examples:
- DailyLoad-2020-05-11 (generated 05-12 at 01-32)_fcst-2.csv
- DailyOperatingAreaData-2020-05-12T01-32_fcst-2.csv
- GasDate_20200511.csv
Changing Passwords
Individual users can change their password through the "Account" tab by providing their current password and creating a new password. For more information about that, see Changing your Password from the "New User Setup" page.
Administrators cannot change the password of other accounts, but they do have the ability to delete and recreate accounts with a new password. For more information about that, jump to the User Management section.
Companies that use their Microsoft credentials to sign in to MCast™ will not see the "Account" section; in that case, user management is handled directly through Microsoft Entra ID. If you manage your company's Entra ID and need help troubleshooting account issues on MCast™, reach out to support@marquetteenergyanalytics.com
Note on password maintenance
A large portion of security-related threats are associated with poor password maintenance. Companies that rarely change their passwords, refrain from using separate passwords for separate login IDs, share passwords via email, or use relatively weak passwords are highly susceptible to security threats and/or breaches. Marquette Energy Analytics works to enforce safe password maintenance by following NIST 800-53B guidelines. This includes enforcing a password with a minimum length of 8 characters and providing a password strength indicator. More information regarding the NIST guidelines can be seen on the U.S. Department of Commerce at https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html
Managing Service Emails
Administrators have the option of setting up "Service Emails," which are emails that can receive automated MCast™ emails without being associated with a normal MCast™ account. Often these are email addresses shared across a whole department (for example, a generic "Gas Control" email address that goes to all members of the gas control team). To manage the settings for Service Emails
- Log into MCast™ with an admin-level account
- Click on "Settings" in the top right corner of the page
- Open the dropdown for "Manage Emails"
From there you will be able to manage the existing Service Emails or add a new one.
These email notifications will be sent to the associated service email. If an email has not been verified, it will not be able to receive any email notifications.
For more about the options you have for configuring email notifications, see the Email Notifications section of the "Notifications" page.
Clearing Alerts for the Organization
While Read-Only and User account levels can clear alerts for themselves as they come in, Admin accounts have the ability to clear or restore alerts for the entire organization. When an Admin clears or restores an alert for the organization, the alert's status will be adjusted for all accounts with access to the application. Accounts with User and Read-Only credentials will be able to still see those alerts under a "Cleared Alerts" section, but they will not be able to restore the alert.
To clear an alert for the whole organization, simply open the NOTIFICATIONS pane and click "Clear for all."
To read more about alerts, see the "Alerts" section of the Notifications page. For more about managing and clearing alerts, see the "Managing Alerts" section of the Notifications page.
My Commission has questions related to the work that Marquette Energy Analytics did. What information am I allowed to share with them?
We understand that the licensed load forecasts and individually-purchased studies we create are submitted regularly to commissions and regulators across the country. Marquette Energy Analytics is happy to share as much information as needed to satisfy inquiries, but we do retain the right to withhold certain proprietary information about how our products function. Scenarios like this vary case-by-case.
We are also happy to provide citations of Marquette Energy Analytics work from regulatory filings across the country on request.
If you have questions along these lines that you need answered, reach out to data@marquettenergyanalytics.com and our team would be happy to help in any way we can. We are always happy to discuss your specific regulator needs and understand how we can best support you.
Billing
If you would like to generate a quote (or you have questions about a quote already received) to license MCast™, renew a license, purchase a Design Day Analysis, receive a special study, or receive some other work from the Marquette Energy Analytics team, reach out to info@marquetteenergyanalytics.com and someone will get back as soon as they can!