The realization of a sustainable energy system for the future requires intelligent automation approaches and operational concepts, in addition to the usage of renewable sources. This paper analyzes the usage of the holonic-control principle as an open, scalable, and interoperable automation solution for setting up a local energy market in the context of smart buildings and energy-efficient neighborhoods. The necessary requirements, the corresponding automation architecture and validation through a co-simulation based proof-of-concept are discussed in this work.