Tasnim � Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian highlighted the progress in the process of supplying electricity to villages and towns across the country and said the population of 99.7 percent of the villages have access to electricity.

In remarks on Monday, Ardakanian said the process of supplying electricity to the country�s villages has been very fast since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He added that since the current administration took office in 2013, every week nine more villages of the country have been electrified.

According to the UN statistics, about 76% of the world�s rural population has access to electricity but in Iran this figure has reached 99.7%, and only 0.3% of the rural population lacks access to power supply, the minister went on to say.

Since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), the country has added 557 MW of capacity to the national grid, according to data released by companies active in the country�s power sector back in late June.

Iran�s nominal electricity generation capacity reached 80,311 MW at the end of last year and now, it has risen to 80,868 MW, the data showed.

In February 2018, Ardakanian highlighted the country�s self-sufficiency in the area of power generation and said the Islamic Republic is the top producer of electricity in the Middle East.

About 90 percent of power generation equipment, even complicated parts like turbines and generators, are currently manufactured inside the country, the energy minister told reporters at the time.

He added that Iran�s capabilities in the area of power generation have developed over the past four decades so much that the country has become the top producer of electricity in the region.

�At present, we have energy exchanges with all the countries that share land borders with us,� he said.