diff --git a/oslo_utils/timeutils.py b/oslo_utils/timeutils.py
index 94b728da..9e15c120 100644
--- a/oslo_utils/timeutils.py
+++ b/oslo_utils/timeutils.py
@@ -143,8 +143,8 @@ def utcnow_ts(microsecond=False):
     return timestamp
 
 
-def utcnow():
-    """Overridable version of utils.utcnow.
+def utcnow(with_timezone=False):
+    """Overridable version of utils.utcnow that can return a TZ-aware datetime.
 
     See :py:class:`oslo_utils.fixture.TimeFixture`.
 
@@ -154,6 +154,8 @@ def utcnow():
             return utcnow.override_time.pop(0)
         except AttributeError:
             return utcnow.override_time
+    if with_timezone:
+        return datetime.datetime.now(tz=iso8601.iso8601.UTC)
     return datetime.datetime.utcnow()
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_timeutils.py b/tests/test_timeutils.py
index fdfab2cc..bc13a31c 100644
--- a/tests/test_timeutils.py
+++ b/tests/test_timeutils.py
@@ -185,6 +185,9 @@ class TimeUtilsTest(test_base.BaseTestCase):
 
         self.assertTrue(timeutils.utcnow())
 
+        self.assertEqual(timeutils.utcnow(True).tzinfo,
+                         iso8601.iso8601.UTC)
+
     def test_advance_time_delta(self):
         timeutils.set_time_override(self.one_minute_before)
         timeutils.advance_time_delta(datetime.timedelta(seconds=60))