Batteries are the core element of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). There are several types of battery technologies, but the most used are Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Emerging lithium-ion battery technologies offer potentially improved cost, safety, cycle life and performance. To determine which battery technology is more suitable for BESS applications, it is important to test them and evaluate their performance and cycle life under typical BESS operation. In this paper, several lithium-ion batteries are analyzed under different tests, to evaluate critical performance parameters for BESS applications. To attain these objectives, several testing schedules are designed, including internal resistance tests, constant power cycle-testing, fast charging techniques and performance evaluation under kinetic and thermodynamic states. The results from the proposed testing schemes allows us to properly evaluate and analyze LIBs, to better understand the technology of choice for BESS.