New Zealand's electricity system is overdue a major overhaul according to a business group advocating for stronger economic growth.GrowthNZ, a bi-partisan initiative which launched earlier this year, is made up of a group of business people - Brendan Vercoe, Bowen Pan, Anna Kominik, Alyssa Laakmann, David Booth, Sam Blackman, Maya Pan, Henry Wang and Malinidi Maclean.The group is lobbing for policy reform, with a view to seeing New Zealand hit a target of 5 percent annual economic growth.GrowthNZ's latest ask is for shake-up of what it said was a poorly designed electricity system, leading to pressure on household budgets and stymieing growth."Electricity bills are really high because the system fundamentally runs on shortages, and when the shortages happen, really expensive coal and gas sets that price," GrowthNZ co-chair Bowen Pan said"It doesn't help that we kind of have, often this partisan stuff and difficulties where clearly we need very long-term thinking in order to really take advantage of the vast abundant renewable energy resources that we have."The group is proposing a system-wide reset of the electricity system, with eight broad areas of change on its wishlist.Co-chair Anna Kominik said first was the need for a long-term plan which remained steady across parliamentary cycles."Also underwriting new generation through competitive revenue options that guarantee a revenue floor, so cutting developers' cost of capital."So that's part of actually ensuring that we're getting that investment in, removing the barriers to entry for independent generation."The group proposal also recommends establishing a government-owned Thermal NewCo which would run the remaining gas and coal plants, and sell cover to all industry participants on equal terms. It would also split Transpower's system operator from its grid owner for more neutral planning.Under the proposal, the 29 lines companies would see consolidation."Making sure that consumers can actually participate fairly in their electricity systems, so that they are getting rewarded for actually participating, but they can also control their own energy usage through the multiple technologies that are now available that weren't around even five years ago," Kominik said.The group also wants to see better access to household solar and batteries and more ways for KiwiSaver and other long-term New Zealand capital to invest in energy infrastructure.GrowthNZ said breaking up the gentailers should remain a backstop if other reforms failed to deliver.