Making controlled power surges
In summary, I'm looking for suggestions on how to safely create a surge on a 220V 50 Hz line.


Obviously, you're not looking at actually raising the voltage of the mains that connects to the utility company because (A) it's probably not legal and (B) a tremendous amount of power would be required to do this, as you have to satisfy increased current demand at the higher voltage for the entire grid.

So you want to jury-rig a diesel or gasoline generator to surge on demand. This is a tricky problem. Real power surges are due to lightning strikes and, to a lesser extent, power grid switching by the utility companies. Neither of these causes of surges can be scaled down to the hobbyist level.