Methods and circuits to reduce power consumption of DRAM local word-line drivers are disclosed. A first voltage converter provides a voltage VPP1, which is lower than the voltage VPP required to operate a word-line of a DRAM cell array. A voltage detector monitors the voltage level of the local word-line driver. Once the voltage level VPP1 is reached on the local word-linedriver switching means as e.g. tri-state drivers put the final VPP voltage on the word line. This VPP voltage is the output of a second voltage boost converter. Putting the voltage in two stages on the word-line reduces the overall power consumption. The voltage level VPP1 has to be carefully selected to find a compromised solution between current consumption and performance.