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Power cells are mentioned no less than 16 times in the core rulebook, but I can't find any rules for them.
What are they? What do they do? What are their cost and bulk? How do they differ from batteries?
Could they be the answer to the battery problem?
It's the Powered Special Property on page 181.
That section doesn't flat out say it's a power cell, but other sections in the book which reference power cells refer to that page. For example, on page 72, the overcharge ability refers to page 181 when talking about power cells.
That...doesn't seem like the answer to me. I'm thinking it's something that accidentally got omitted.
"Overcharge: As a standard action, you can use your custom rig to overcharge and attack with a ranged energy weapon or a melee weapon with the powered special property (see page 181) that you’re holding. If you hit, you deal 1d6 additional damage of the same type the weapon normally deals. This attack uses three times as many charges from the battery or power cell as normal and can’t be used if the weapon doesn’t have enough charges. This trick has no effect on a weapon without a battery or power cell. You can instead use this ability as a move action on a touched powered weapon that is unattended or attended by an ally to grant the same effect to that weapon’s next attack before the beginning of your next turn."
If it doesn't refer to the internal charges of a Powered weapon, then the wording of this ability does not make sense.
If it refers to small bulk items, like personal comms units, this section also doesn't make sense.
This section only makes sense if power cells refers to the internal charges of powered weapons.
You're probably right that it got changed in editing or something. To me, it feels like the powered section got changed so it has an "internal battery" with its own special rules but is functionally the same as a battery. It had "powered cells" as the name, but got changed to just have a battery with a special rule. But then, nothing else in the book which references it got changed - a thing which has happened multiple times.
There may have been a phase of development where items worked like the PF tech guide and had internal power that was recharged by applying a battery, but you didn't insert he battery and leave it there. But then I don't know why they would ever distinguish between a battery or a power cell providing power to an item, under that system the "power cell" would always be the direct, immediate source of power.