Devices and techniques are disclosed herein to provide a high-voltage bias signal in a standby state of the storage system without exceeding a limited maximum standby current allowance of the storage system. The high-voltage bias signal can enable a string driver circuit in the standby state to couple a global word line to a local word line, to provide a bias to, or sink a voltage from, a pillar of a string of memory cells of the storage system in the standby state, such as to reduce read disturbances in the storage system.