Coal often contains various harmful trace metals with deferent content levels owing to the specificity of coal-forming environment. These harmful trace metals will discharge into the environment along with the coal combustion and result in environmental degradation. To understand the impact of coal-fired power on the surrounding soil environment, the contents, speciation, pollution levels and ecological risks of some harmful trace metals in agricultural soil around a thermal power plant were investigated in this work. The topsoil samples of agricultural land around Yuxia thermal power plant were collected and the contents of Cd, Co, Cr, Pb, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn in the samples were determined using atomic absorption spectrometry. The speciation of the analysed trace metals in the soil was determined using the modified European Community Bureau of Reference sequential extraction procedure. Geo-accumulation index and potential ecological risk index were used to assess their pollution level and ecological risk. The results indicated that the contents of Cd, Co, Cr, Pb, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn in the agricultural soil around Yuxia thermal power plant ranged from 3.7 to 6.6, 18.9 to 73.0, 124.4 to 195.6, 40.9 to 162.5, 23.8 to 102.9, 535.5 to 801.8, 33.1 to 48.4, and 24.2 to 189.5 mg/kg, with an average of 5.0, 46.1, 142.2, 77.5, 36.0, 663.3, 39.6 and 84.9 mg/kg, respectively. The mean contents of all analysed harmful trace metal in the agricultural soil were higher than their background values in local soil. The HOAc extractable form, reducible form and oxidizable form of Cd in the soil were approximate, i.e. respectively were 27.1%, 25.6% and 27.1%, which are higher than the residual form (20.2%). Co was dominated by the HOAc extractable form. Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn were mainly associated with the residual form. Mn and Pb were dominated by the reducible form. The mobile fractions (the sum of HOAc extraction form, reducible form and oxidizable form) of the harmful trace metals in agricultural soil were Mn (93.2%) > Cd (79.8%) > Co (70.5%) > Pb (67.4%) > Zn (48.8%) > Cu (47.9%) > Ni (45.2%) > Cr(21.9%). The calculated results of geo-accumulation index showed that Mn, Ni and Zn were unpolluted, Cr and Cu presented unpolluted to moderately polluted, while Co and Pb were moderately polluted, and Cd was extremely polluted. The potential ecological risk assessment results indicated that Cd had very high ecological risk, while other trace metals had low ecological risk. The overall ecological risks of the investigated harmful trace metals measured in the samples were very high level, which mainly contributed by Cd. As a result, the contents of Cd, Co and Pb in local groundwater and crops should be further investigated in the future work.