“We are going to use every opportunity for serving people in this year named ‘surge in production’ (by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) in order to prepare the infrastructures for surge in production, with water and energy being among the most important ones,” Ardakanian said at a ceremony held to launch several water and energy plans in Tehran Province on Thursday.
This year, with a 500,000 billion rial investment, inauguration or ground breaking ceremonies will be held for 250 major water and energy projects in the country, he added.
The projects launched in Tehran Province on Wednesday included the steam-power unit of Parand Power Plant and three wastewater treatment plants in Eslamshahr, Malarad and Safadasht towns, the Energy Minister noted.
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.