Today’s energy market demands flexible operation of power plant units from plant operators. Frequent shutdowns of power plant units combined with the requirement for fast restoration of power output are now standard requirements for many power plants. Daily startups and shutdowns are now a common occurrence. This increases the economic significance of a short startup process with an extensively optimized and automated startup sequence for hot starts. This paper describes the progress which has been made in recent years with respect to the startup times of combined-cycle power plants. It describes the process changes which have been implemented for hot starts paying special attention to their impact on the steam turbine.