<p>The high temperature corrosion and wear of steels in coal based power plant at elevated temperature is the primary reason behind downtime in power generating plants. The failure of steel components is big hazard to the effectiveness of the power-plant and responsible for the economic loss. To counter the effect of environmental degradation on steels, the chemical composition has been improved and their microstructures are also modified. But these changes have provided limited protection to the steels. The other useful method to control the degradation of steels is to apply coating of the protective material on the surface of target metal with the help of thermal spray technology. In this article, a systematic study of literature has been done to understand the level of protection provided by the HVOF (thermal spray technique) sprayed coatings to the different steels employed in degrading environments in coal based power plant. This article may help to researchers to select the HVOF technique with best coating combination to resist the failure of steels in coal based power plants.</p>