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Michael J. Lastella - Principal Consultant
Mike Lastella has spent over 33 years in the power transmission and distribution (T&D) business at one of the Northeast's largest electric utilities (National Grid USA). During that time, he held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility in operations, maintenance, engineering and management of all facets of the T&D business. These experiences have given Mike a broad and varied background in critical facets of the constantly evolving electric utility business.
During his early career at National Grid USA (formally the New England Electric System), Mike held various positions managing substation O&M and asset management programs, policies, standards and procedures. He worked to improve maintenance standards and practices to reduce the cost of maintenance programs, and to introduce new technologies for improved operations efficiency. He took a leadership role in developing standard equipment specifications resulting in the reduction of cost to procure and maintain spare equipment, including a fleet of mobile spares.
Mike progressed to the role of Manager of Operations & Maintenance, where he added distribution overhead and underground responsibilities to his substation responsibilities. In this role, he was responsible for the company’s substation and distribution facility policies, standards and procedures along with direction of the company’s emergency and storm restoration response.
Later, Mike was assigned as Manager of Operations and Maintenance for one of the fastest growing districts in the National Grid System. In this assignment, he was responsible for all facets of engineering, operations, maintenance and construction to support the reliable delivery of electricity to over 200,000 customer households. Thereafter, Mike was assigned as Director of Substation Engineering Services, where he was responsible for all substation engineering, construction, operations and maintenance for the entire National Grid System -- which by then included the service territories of both the New England Electric and the Niagara Mohawk Systems. A key contribution in this role included the development and implementation of new enterprise software systems to coordinate engineering work management, asset management and maintenance management information and processes.
Mike has been a long standing member of various Doble Engineering Client Committees, and has chaired Doble’s Client Advisory and Oil Committees. He represented the Client Advisory Committee at the 2004 and 2005 EuroDoble Colliqiums. He has authored or co-authored several technical papers covering substation O&M and asset management in association with Doble’s sharing of “best practice” information.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and is a graduate of the School of Industrial Management Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and its Power Engineering Society. He holds licenses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for Construction Supervision, and as both a Master and Journeyman Electrician.