Finnish charging operator Plugit has acquired the EV charging business of Helen, the Helsinki-owned energy utility, the companies announced on July 8, 2026. The deal hands Plugit 199 public charging stations and 798 charging points, serving more than 55,000 users, making it the largest public charging operator in the Helsinki metropolitan area by number of charge points. Helen exits EV charging entirely to focus on its core electricity, district heating and cooling business. Plugit, which already runs more than 6,000 charging stations and serves over 185,000 users across Finland and Sweden, says Helen's customers will move onto its network and single app.
Whenever a network changes ownership, its drivers and site hosts inherit whichever backend the new owner runs, whether or not they chose it. That is the structural risk behind any charging consolidation: a station that worked fine yesterday can end up re-commissioned onto unfamiliar software with no say in the matter. Running chargers on OCPP with a portable management layer, Plugchoice's free CSMS and OCPP proxy, keeps that choice reversible: a change of operator upstream does not have to mean a change of backend for the hardware underneath it.
Sources: Avance Attorneys, Mobility Plaza, Plugit.