This paper presents an assessment of three types of battery in a designed battery controller for a battery energy storage system (BESS) integrated with a solar photovoltaic system for load leveling and peak shaving applications. Three types of battery - lead acid, lithium ion, and nickel metal hydride - are discussed in detail and assessed in this work, focusing on small-scale integration. The controller was designed using Matlab Simulink to monitor consumer load demand, control the charging and discharging process of the BESS, and regulate while fulfilling the load demand, in addition to prolonging the BESS lifetime. From the simulation results, the nickel metal hydride battery is the best option for development of a battery controller. It achieved an average 37.45% leveled load profile and a 35.75% reduction of the load peak. However, the lead acid battery is still the dominant choice among consumers, in spite of average performance, because it has the best cost performance.
